TORPIDITY OF SWALLOWS. 



enterprise of moment at all agitated their spirits. 

 And this was the case in the beginning of this 

 very month ; for on the fourth of November more 

 than twenty house-martins, which, in appearance, 

 had all departed about the seventh of October, 

 were seen again ; for that one morning only, 

 sporting between my fields and the Hanger, and 

 feasting on insects which swarmed in that shel- 

 tered district. The preceding day was wet and 

 blustering, but the fourth was dark, and mild, and 

 soft, the wind at south-west, and the thermometer 

 at 5 85 ; a pitch not common at that season of the 

 year. Moreover, it may not be amiss to add in 

 this place, that whenever the thermometer is above 

 50, the bat comes flitting out in every autumnal 

 and winter month. 



From all these circumstances laid together, it is 

 obvious that torpid insects, reptiles, and quadru- 

 peds, are awakened from their profoundest slum- 

 bers by a little untimely warmth; and therefore, that 

 nothing so much promotes this death-like stupor 

 as a defect of heat. And farther, it is reasonable 

 to suppose that two whole species, or at least many 

 individuals of these two species, of British hirun- 

 dines, do never leave this island at all, but partake 

 of the same benumbed state ; for we cannot suppose 

 that, after a month's absence, house-martins can 

 return from southern regions to appear for one 

 morning in November, or that house-swallows 

 should leave the districts of Africa to enjoy, in 

 March, the transient summer of a couple of days. 



XXXVII. 



THERE was in this village, several years ago, a 

 miserable pauper, who, from his birth, was afflicted 



