I 



stance will prove anything either way I shall not 

 pretend to say. 



I return you thanks for your account of Cressi 

 Hall ; but recollect, not without regret, that in June, 

 1746, I was visiting for a week together at Spalding, 

 without ever being told that such a curiosity was 

 just at hand. Pray tell me in your next what sort 

 of tree it is that contains such a quantity of herons' 

 nests ; and whether the heronry consists of a whole 

 grove or wood, or only of a few trees. 



It gave me satisfaction to find we accorded so 

 well about the caprimulgus : all I contended for was 

 to prove that it often chatters sitting as well as fry- 

 ing ; and therefore the noise was voluntary, and from 

 organic impulse, and not from the resistance of the 

 air against the hollow of its mouth and throat. 



If ever I saw anything like actual migration, it 

 was last Michaelmas Day. I was travelling, and out 

 early in the morning : at first there was a vast fog ; 

 but by the time that I was got seven or eight miles 

 from home towards the coast, the sun broke out into 

 a delicate warm day. We were then on a large 

 heath or common, and I could discern, as the mist 

 began to break away, great numbers of swallows 

 {Hiriindines rusticce) clustering on the stunted shrubs 

 and bushes, as if they had roosted there all night. 

 As soon as the air became clear and pleasant they 

 all were on the wing at once ; and, by a placid and 

 easy flight, proceeded on southward towards the 



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