RETURN OF SUMMER BIRDS. 



or state of perfection ; while the progressive 

 growth of men and large quadrupeds is slow and 

 tedious ! 



XXII. 



BY means of a straight cottage chimney, I had 

 an opportunity this summer of remarking at my 

 leisure, how swallows ascend and descend through 

 the shaft ; but my pleasure in contemplating the 

 address with which this feat was performed to a 

 considerable depth in the chimney, was somewhat 

 interrupted by apprehensions lest my eyes might 

 undergo the same fate with those of Tobit 1 . 



Perhaps it may be some amusement to you to 

 hear at what times the different species of hirun- 

 dines arrived this spring in three very distant 

 counties of this kingdom. With us the swallow 

 was seen first on April the 4th ; the swift on April 

 the 24th; the black-martin on April the 12th; 

 and the house -martin not till April the 30th. At 

 South Zele, Devonshire, swallows did not arrive 

 till April the 25th ; swifts, in plenty, on May the 

 1st; and house-martins not till the middle of 

 May. At Blackburn, in Lancashire, swifts were 

 seen April the 28th ; swallows, April the 29th ; 

 house-martins, May the 1st. Do these different 

 dates, in such distant districts, prove any thing 

 for or against migration ? 



A farmer near Weyhill fallows his land with 

 two teams of asses, one of which works till noon, 

 and the other in the afternoon. When these 

 animals have done their work, they are penned 

 all night, like sheep on the fallow. In the winter 

 they are confined and foddered in a yard, and 

 make plenty of dang. 



1 Tobit ii. 10. 



