INSTINCT. 237 



LETTER LVI. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



THEY who write on natural history cannot too frequently advert 

 to instinct, that wonderful limited faculty, which, in some in- 

 stances, raises the brute creation as it were above reason, and in 

 others leaves them so far below it. Philosophers have denned 

 instinct to be that secret influence by which every species is im- 

 pelled naturally to pursue, at all times, the same way or track, 

 without any teaching or example ; whereas reason, without in- 



carefully noted their arrival or disappearance, and recorded every fact connected with their 

 hitory. After some years constant observation and reflection, I remarked that, among all the 

 species of migratory birds, those that remove furthest from us depart sooner than those which 

 retire only to the confines of the United States, and, by a parity of reasoning, those that remain 

 later return earlier in the spring. These remarks were confirmed as I advanced towards the 

 south-west on the approach of winter, for 1 there found numbers of warblers, thrushes, &c., in 

 full feather and song. It was also remarked that the hirundo viridis of Wilson remained about 

 the city of New Orleans later than any other swallow. As immense numbers of them were seen 

 during the month of November, I kept a diary of the temperature from the 3rd of that month, 

 until the arrival of the hirundo purpurece. The following notes are taken from my journal ; and, 

 as I had excellent opportunities during a residence of many years in the country of visiting the 

 lakes to which these swallows were said to resort during transient frosts, I present them with 

 confidence. 



" Nov. llth. Weather very sharp, with a heavy white frost. Swallows in abundance during the 

 whole day. On enquiring of the inhabitants if this was an unusual occurrence, 1 was answered 

 in the affirmative by all the French and Spaniards. From this date to the twenty-second the 

 thermometer averaged sixty-five degrees, the weather generally a drizzly fog. Swallows playing 

 over the city in thousands. 



"Nov. 25th. Thermometer this morning at thirty degrees. Ice in New Orleans a quarter of an 

 inch thick. The swallows resorted to the lee of the cypress swamp in the rear of the city. Thou- 

 sands were flying in different flocks. Fourteen were killed at a single shot, all in perfect plumage 

 and very fat. The markets were abundantly supplied with these tender, juicy, and delicious 

 birds. Saw swallows every day, but remarked them more plentiful the stronger the breeze blew 

 from the sea. 



" Dec. 20th. The weather continues much the same. Foggy and drizzly mist. Thermometer 

 averaging sixty-three degrees 



" Jan. 14th. Thermometer forty-two degrees. Weather continues the same. My little favourites 

 constantly in view. 



" Jan. 28th. Thermometer at forty-degrees. Having seen the H- viridis continually, and the 

 H- purpurcee, or purple martin, beginning to appear, I discontinued my observations. 



" During the whole winter, many of them retired to the holes about the houses, but the greater 

 number resorted to the lakes and spent the night among the branches of myrica cerifera, the 

 eirur, as it is termed by the French settlers. At sunset they began to flock together, calling to 

 each other for that purpose, and, in a short time, presented the appearance of clouds moving 

 towards the lakes, or the mouth of the Mississippi, as the weather and wind suited. Their aerial 

 evolutions before they alight are truly beautiful. They appear at first as if reconuoitering the 

 place, when, suddenly throwing themselves into a vortex of apparent confusion, they descend 

 spirally with astonishing quickness, and very ranch resemble a trombe, or water-spout. When 

 within a few feet of the cirim, they disperse in all directions, and settle in a few moments. Their 

 twittering, and the motions of their wings, are, however, heard during the whole night. As soon 

 at the day begins to dawn, they rise, flying low over the lakes, almost touching the water for 

 ome time, and then rising gradually move off in search of food, separating in different direc- 

 tions. The hunters who resort to those places destroy great numbers of them, by knocking them 

 down with light paddles used in propelling their canoes." ED. 



