ll'i NATURAL HISTORY 



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 

 sea : after this I did not see any more flocks, 

 only now and then a straggler. 



I cannot agree with those persons that 

 assert that the swallow kind disappear some 

 and some gradually, as they come, for the 

 bulk of them seem to withdraw at once : 

 only some stragglers stay behind a long 

 while, and do never, there is the greatest 

 reason to believe, leave this island. Swal- 

 lows seem to lay themselves up, and to 

 come forth in a warm day, as bats do con- 

 tinually of a M-arm evening, after they have 

 disappeared for weeks. For a very respect- 

 able gentleman assured me that, as he was 

 walkino- with some friends under Mcrton- 

 wall on a remarkably hot noon, cither in 

 the last week in December or the first week 

 in Ja?iuart/,\\e espied three or four swallows 

 huddled together on the moulding of one 

 of the windows of that college. I have fre- 

 quently remarked that swallows are seen 



