OF SELBORNE. 311 



Again : it appears by my journals for many years 

 past, that house martins retire, to a bird, about the 

 beginning of October; so that a person not very ob- 

 servant of such matters would 'conclude that they had 

 taken their last farewell : but then it may be seen in 

 my diaries also, that considerable flocks have disco- 

 vered themselves again in the first week of November, 

 and often on the fourth day of that month only for one 

 day ; and that not as if they were in actual migration, 

 but playing about at their leisure and feeding calmly, 

 as if no enterprise of moment at all agitated their spirits. 

 And this was the case in the beginning of this very 

 month ; for, on the 4th of November, more than twenty 

 house martins, which, in appearance, had all departed 

 about the 7th of October, were seen again, for that one 

 morning only, sporting between my fields and the 

 Hanger, and feasting on insects which swarmed in 

 that sheltered district. The preceding day was wet 

 and blustering, but the 4th was dark and mild, and 

 soft, the wind at south-west, and the thermometer 

 at 58|; a pitch not common at that season of the 

 year. Moreover, it may not be amiss to add in this 

 place, that whenever the thermometer is above 50, 

 the bat comes flitting out in every autumnal and winter 

 month. 



From all these circumstances laid together, it is 

 obvious that torpid insects, reptiles, and quadrupeds, 

 are awakened from their profoundest slumbers by a 

 little untimely warmth ; and therefore that nothing so 

 much promotes this death-like stupor as a defect of 

 heat. And farther, it is reasonable to suppose that 

 two whole species, or at least many individuals of 

 those two species, of British Hirundines, do never 

 leave this island at all, but partake of the same be- 

 numbed state : for we cannot suppose that, after a 

 month's absence, house martins can return from south- 

 ern regions to appear for one morning in November, or 



