TORPIDITY OF SWALLOWS. 241 



XXXVI. 



You cannot but remember, that the twenty- 

 sixth and twenty- seventh of last March were very 

 hot days , so sultry, that every body complained 

 and were restless under those sensations to which 

 they had not been reconciled by gradual ap- 

 proaches. 



This sudden summer-like heat was attended by 

 many summer coincidences ; for on those two 

 days the thermometer 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-swal- 

 lows 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 in- 

 sects 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 considera- 

 ble 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 



