OF SELBORNE. 129 



water, he turned out a water-rat, that was 

 curiously laid up in an hybernaculum arti- 

 ficially formed of grass and leaves. At one 

 end of the burrow lay above a gallon of po- 

 tatoes regularly stowed, on which it was 

 to have supported itself for the Winter. But 

 the difficulty with me is how this amphibius 

 mus came to fix its Winter station at such 

 a distance from the water. Was it deter- 

 mined in its choice of that place by the 

 mere accident of finding the potatoes which 

 were planted there ; or is it the constant 

 practice of the aquatic-rat to forsake the 

 neighbourhood of the water in the colder 

 months ? 



Though I delight very little in analogous 

 reasoning, knowing how fallacious it is 

 with respect to natural history ; yet, in the 

 following instance, I cannot help being in- 

 clined to think it may conduce towards the 

 explanation of a difficulty that I have men- 

 tioned before, with respect to the invariable 

 early retreat of the hirmido apus^ or swift, 

 so many weeks before its congeners : and 

 that not only with us, but also in Andalusia, 



VOL. I. K 



