OF SELBORNE. 61 



lages lying on the Thames, near Hampton Court. In 

 the autumn, I could not help being much amused with 

 those myriads of the swallow kind which assemble in 

 those parts. But what struck me most was, that, 

 from the time they began to congregate, forsaking the 

 chimneys and houses, they roosted every night in the 

 osier-beds of the aits of that river. Now this resorting 

 towards that element, at that season of the year, seems 

 to give some countenance to the northern opinion 

 (strange as it is) of their retiring under water. A 

 Swedish naturalist is so much persuaded of that fact 

 that he talks, in his Calendar of Flora, as familiarly of 

 the swallow's going under water in the beginning of 

 September, as he would of his poultry going to roost a 

 little before sunset 8 . 



An observing gentleman in London writes me word, 

 that he saw a house-martin, on the twenty-third of last 

 October, flying in and out of its nest in the Borough 9 . 



8 In the Calendar of Flora, Swedish and English, made in the year 

 1755, and published in 1761 by Stillingfleet, among the occurrences of the 

 sowing month (which is defined as extending from the first blow of the 

 meadow saffron to the departure of the swallow) the concluding entry by 

 Linnaeus is " Swallow goes under water :" an entry made with as little 

 hesitation as would occur in the enunciation of the most ordinary and 

 undoubted fact. On this statement, however, Stillingfleet notes thus : 

 " Adanson, in the account of his voyage to Senegal, p. 121, says that in 

 October, 1749, European swallows lodged in the vessel in which he went 

 from Goree to Senegal : and that they are never seen there but at this 

 time of the year, along with quails, wagtails, kites, and some other birds 

 of passage, and do not build nests there. This testimony seems to take 

 away all doubts about this long contested point." E. T. B. 



9 On the 7th of October, 1835, a number of house martins congregated 

 on the roofs of the houses opposite to Cumberland Gate, Hyde Park. 

 They had been gathering for several days previous ; were numerous in 

 the streets; and flew so low, that the boys were trying to catch them in 

 their hats. On the 8th and 9th there were none to be seen. On the 15th 

 a pair were seen, hawking for flies, in Cumberland Crescent. The con- 

 gregating of the emigrants having been observed, and the departure of 

 the multitude being consequently regarded as certain, it became an object 

 of interest to watch this pair; and they were found to have a nest of 

 young at a house in Cumberland Place, fixed in the upper corner of a 

 blank window. On a subsequent visit, I found them feeding their young 

 at the opening of the nest, passing to and fro, in the most rapid manner. 



