36 



I may subjoin, that I have questioned seve- 

 ral persons, who have crossed the ocean, on the 

 subject of birds occasionally met with out at 

 sea, and have frequently been told of the sudden 

 appearance of flights of swallows many hundred 

 miles from land. 



If the above accounts may be depended on, 

 (which I can see no reason to doubt, since the 

 relators could have no interest in supporting 

 them if they were false,) it must appear evi- 

 dent that the birds in question, at the time 

 when they were seen at sea, as above describ- 

 ed, must have been on their passage from some 

 distant country ; there being no other apparent 

 cause for their appearing at any considerable dis- 

 tance from land. 



There are many accounts of persons who ap- 

 pear to have seen the swallows actually setting 

 out on their aerial voyages, besides that of M. 

 Collison in the foregoing note. Mr. White, of 

 Selborne, walking one morning on the Coast of 



soaring round and round ; higher and higher ; until my 

 eyes were so pained with looking at them, that I could 

 no longer discern them." See Phil. Trans, vol. i. p. 4()1. 



