474 THEPHILOSOPHY 



dltion, In tlie fmalleft degree unnatural. Still, however, the num- 

 bers of fwallows which appear in this ifland, as well as in all parts 

 of Europe, during the fummer months, are fo very confiderable, that, 

 if the great body of them did not migrate to fome other climate, 

 they fhould be much more frequently found in a torpid ftate. On 

 the contrary, when a few of them are difcovered in that ftate, it is 

 regarded as a wonder even by the country people, who have the 

 greateft opportunities of ftumbling upon fadls of this kind. When, 

 accordingly, a few fwallows or martins are found torpid in winter, 

 and have been revived by a gentle heat, the fa£t, and few fuch fa£ts 

 there are, is carefully recorded as fingular in all the periodical pub- 

 lications of Europe. 



Mr Pennant informs us, from undoubted authority, that fome 

 quaiU, and other birds which are generally fuppofed to leave this 

 ifland in winter, retire to the fea-coafts, and pick up their food 

 among the fea-weeds *. 



-* Quails,' Mr Pennant remarks, * are birds of paflage ; fome en- 

 tirely quitting our ifland, others fhifting their quarters. A gentle- 

 man, to whom this work lies under great obligations, has aflured 

 us, that thefe birds migrate out of the neighbouring inland coun- 

 ties, into the hundreds of Eflex in Odtober, and continue there all 

 the winter : Tf froft or fnow drive them out of the ftubble-fields 

 and marfhes, they retreat to the fea-fide, flicker themfelves among 

 the weeds, and live upon what they can pick up from the algae, 

 &c. between high and low water mark. Our friend remarks, that 

 the time of their appearance in Eflex coincides with that of their 

 leaving the inland counties f.' 



• Brit. Zool. Vol. I, pag. 210. 2d edit. 8vo, 

 f Pennant, ibid. 



