1 86 The Natural History 



LETTER XXXVl 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selboine, Nov. 22, 1777. 

 Dear Sir, 



You cannot but remember that the twenty-sixth and 

 twenty-seventh of last March were very hot days ; so 

 sultry that everybody complained and were restless under 

 those sensations to which they had not been reconciled 

 by gradual approaches. 



This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many 

 summer coincidences ; for on those two days the ther- 

 mometer rose to sixty-six in the shade ; many species of 

 insects revived and came forth ; some bees swarmed in 

 this neighbourhood ; the old tortoise, near Lewes in 

 Sussex, awakened and came forth out of its dormitory ; 

 and, what is most to my present purpose, many house- 

 swallows appeared and were very alert in many places, 

 and particularly at Cobham, in Surrey. 



But as that short warm period was succeeded as well 

 as preceded by harsh severe weather, with frequent frosts 

 and ice, and cutting winds, the insects withdrew, the 

 tortoise retired again into the ground, and the swallows 

 were seen no more until the tenth of April, when, the 

 rigour of the spring abating, a softer season began to 

 prevail. 



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 observant 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 discovered 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 



