OF SELBORNE. Ill 



hand. Pray send me word in your next 

 what sort of tree it is that contains such a 

 quantity of herons' nests ; and whether the 

 heronry consist of a whole grove or wood, 

 cr only of a few trees. 



It gave me satisfaction to find we ac- 

 corded so well about the caprimulgus : all 

 I contended for was to prove that it often 

 chatters sitting as well as flying ; and there- 

 fore the noise was voluntary, and from 

 organic impulse, and not from the resist- 

 ance of the air against the hollow of its 

 mouth and throat. 



If ever I saw any thing like actual migra- 

 tion, 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 (hirun- 

 dines rusliccsj clustering on the stunted 

 shrubs and bushes, as if they had roosted 



