CF NATURAL Hf STORY. 485 



ever I faw,* lliys he, < any thing like aflual migration, it 

 was laft Michaelmas day, 1 768. I was travelling, and out 

 earlv in the morning : At firft there was a vaft fog ; but, 

 by the time that 1 was got feven or eight miles from home 

 towards the coaft, the fun broke out into a delicate warm 

 day. We were then on a large heath or common, and I 

 could difcern, as the mift began to break away, great num- 

 bers of fwallows cluftering on the ftinted ihrubs and bufh- 

 es, as if they had rooded there all night. As foon as the 

 air became clear and pleafant, they all were on the wing at 

 once, and, by a placid and eafy flight, proceeded on fouth- 

 ward towards the fea : After this I did not fee any more 

 flocks, only now and then a fl:raggler. When I ufed to 

 rife in a morning laft autumn, and fee the fwallows and 

 martins cluftering on the chimneys and thatch of the neigh- 

 bouring cottages, I could not help being touched with fe- 

 cret delight, mixed with fome degree of mortification : 

 With delight, to obferve with how much ardour and punc- 

 tuality thofe poor little birds obeyed the ftrong impulfe to- 

 wards migration, or hiding, imprinted on their minds by 

 their great Creator ; and with fome degree of mortifica- 

 tion, when I reflected, that, after all Our pains and enquir- 

 ies, we are yet not quite certain to what regions they do 

 migrate ; and are ftill farther embarrafled to find, that 

 fome do not aclually migrate at all*.' 

 In another part of this work, Mr. White fays : < But we 

 muft not deny migration in general •, becaufe migration 

 certainly does fubfift in fome places, as my brother in An- 

 dalufia has fully inform.ed me. Of the motions of thefe 

 birds he has ocular demonftration, for many weeks toge- 

 ther, both fpring and fall : During which periods, myriads 

 of the fwallow kind traverfe the Straits from north to fouth, 

 and from fouth to north, according to the feafon. And 



* Whirl's Natural Hiftory of Selbornc, page 64.65. 

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