THE 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 



LETTER LVII. 

 To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. 



The house-swallow,^ or chimney-swallow, is un- 

 doubtedly the first comer of all the British hirim- 

 dines ; and appears in general on or about the 13th of 

 April, as I have remarked from many years' observa- 

 tion. Not but now and then a straggler is seen much 

 earlier : and, in particular, when I was a boy I ob- 

 served a swallow for a whole day together on a 

 sunny warm Shrove Tuesday ; which day could not 

 fall out later than the middle of March, and often 

 happened early in February. 



It is worth remarking that these birds are seen 

 first about lakes and mill-ponds ; and it is also very 

 particular, that if these early visitors happen to find 

 frost and snow, as was the case in the two dreadful 

 springs of 1770 and 1771, they immediately with- 

 draw for a time. A circumstance this much more in 

 favour of hiding than migration ; since it is much 



* Chimney-Swallow, Hirundo rustica, Linnaeus. 



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