LETTER XII 1 



TO THE SAME 



March gtk, 1772. 



DEAR SIR, As a gentleman 2 and myself were walking on 

 the fourth of last November round the sea-banks at New- 

 haven, near the mouth of the Lewes river, in pursuit of 

 natural knowledge, we were surprised to see three house- 

 swallows gliding very swiftly by us. That morning was 

 rather chilly, with the wind at north-west ; but the tenor 

 of the weather for some time before had been delicate, and 

 the noons remarkably warm. From this incident, and from 

 repeated accounts which I meet with, I am more and more 

 induced to believe that many of the swallow kind do not 

 depart from this island, but lay themselves up in holes and 

 caverns ; and do, insect-like and bat-like, come forth at 

 mild times, and then retire again to their latebrce? Nor 

 make I the least doubt but that, if I lived at Newkaven, 

 Seaford, Brighthelmstone, or any of those towns near the 

 chalk cliffs of the Sussex coast, by proper observations I 

 should see swallows stirring at periods of the winter when 

 the noons were soft and inviting, and the sun warm and 

 invigorating. And I am the more of this opinion from 

 what I have remarked during some of our late springs, that 



1 In the MS. Letters this is a continuation of the foregoing one. [R. B. S.] 



* " My Brother of Thames Street," in the MS. [R- B. S.] 



3 Gilbert White here pronounced in a less guarded manner than usual in 



favour of the theory of the hybernation of swallows. See note to vol. i. 



p. 162. [R. B. S.] 



VOL. II. 4i F 



