48 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



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 l 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. 



An observing gentleman in London writes me word that 

 he saw an house-martin, on the twenty-third of last October, 

 flying in and out of its nest in the Borough. And I 

 myself, on the twenty-ninth of last October (as I was travel- 

 ling through Oxford), saw four or five swallows hovering 

 round and settling on the roof of the county hospital. 



Now is it likely that these poor little birds (which 

 perhaps had not been hatched but a few weeks) should, 

 at that late season of the year, and from so midland a 

 county, attempt a voyage to Goree or Senegal, almost as 

 far as the equator ? z 



I acquiesce entirely in your opinion that, though 

 most of the swallow kind may migrate, yet that some do 

 stay behind and hide with us during the winter. 3 



As to the short - winged soft-billed birds, which 



of the gatherings of Sand-Martins prepared for his " Birds of Great Britain " (vol. ii. 

 pi. 8). In the autumn of 1872 I was myself witness to an enormous gathering 

 of Swallows, Sand-Martins, and Yellow Wagtails (Motacilla campestris) in the reed- 

 beds near Pagham Harbour, in Sussex : the birds assembled in these reed-beds to 

 roost, before they finally took flight across the Channel. Only recently (Sept. 14, 

 1899) I found a large assemblage of Swallows and Sand-Martins gathered together, 

 evidently on migration, close to Barnes Bridge, and as twilight fell, commencing 

 to roost in some small osier-beds on the banks of the Thames in that vicinity. 

 See further remarks by Gilbert White in Letter XXXIII (postea, p. 134), and 

 Letter IX to Daines Barrington. [R. B. S.] 



1 Linnaeus. [R. B. S.] 



2 See " Adanson's Voyage to Senegal." [G. W.] 



3 The Common Swallow (Hirundo rustica) has been found during our winter 

 in nearly every part of Africa, and occurs plentifully in the Cape Colony. The 

 House-Martin (Chelidon urbica) and the Sand-Martin (Clivicola riparia) have 

 both been found in the Transvaal, but very sparingly, and where the millions of 

 these birds which are reared during the European summer pass the winter 

 months, is still a mystery. [R. B. S.] 



