(V2 NATURAL HISTORY 



me most was, that, from the time they be- 

 gan to congregate, forsaking the chimnies 

 and houses, they roosted every night in the 

 osier-beds of the aits of that river. Now 

 this resorting towards that element, at that 

 season of the year, seems to give some coun- 

 tenance to the northern opinion (strange 

 as it is) of their retiring under water. A 

 Swedish naturalist is so much persuaded of 

 that fact, that he talks, in his calendar of 

 Flora, as familiarly of the swallow's going 

 under water in the beginning of Septejyiber, 

 as he would of his poultry going to roost a 

 little before sunset. 



An observing gentleman in Zow^on writes 

 me word, that he saw an house-martin, on 

 the twenty-third of last October, flying in 

 and out of its nest in the Borough. And I 

 myself, on the twenty-ninth of last October 

 (as I was travelling through Oxford J, saw 

 four or five swallows hovering round and 

 settling on the roof of the county-hospital. 

 Now is it likely that these poor little 

 birds (which perhaps had not been hatched 

 but a few weeks) should, at that late season 



