OF SELBORNE. 209 



and, perhaps, in their emigration, must traverse vast conti- 

 nents and oceans as distant as the equator. So soon does 

 Nature advance small birds to their *iXixi'a, or state of per- 

 fection; while the progressive growth of men and large 

 quadrupeds is slow and tedious ! 



LETTER XXII. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, Sept. 13, 1774. 



Y means of a straight cottage chimney I 

 had an opportunity this summer of re* 

 marking, at my leisure, how swallows ascend 

 and descend through the shaft : but my 

 pleasure in contemplating the address with 

 which this feat was performed to a considerable depth in 

 the chimney, was somewhat interrupted by apprehensions 

 lest my eyes might undergo the same fate with those of 

 Tobit. 1 



Perhaps it may be some amusement to you to hear at 

 what times the different species of Hirundines arrived this 

 spring in three very distant counties of this kingdom. 

 With us the swallow was seen first on April the 4th, the 

 swift on April the 24th, the bank martin on April the 12th, 

 and the house martin not till April the 30th. At South 

 Zele, Devonshire, swallows did not arrive till April the 

 25th ; swifts in plenty, on May the 1st; and house martins 

 not till the middle of May. At Blackburne, in Lancashire, 

 swifts were seen April the 28th; swallows, April the 29th ; 

 house martins, May the 1st. Do these different dates in such 

 distant districts, prove anything for or against migration ?* 



1 Tobit, ii. 10. 



2 See the " Field Calendar of Ornithology ;" General Report for 

 1872; published in "The Field" of May 31 and June 7, 1873, and 

 subsequently reprinted. ED. 



P 



