289 ] 



with any fort of precifion, which I mall juft 

 ftate, as I would not decline giving the beft anfwer 

 I am able to every argument and fact which may be 

 relied upon, by thofe who contend that birds periodi» 

 caliy migrate acrofs oceans. 



On the 30th of March, 175 1, Ofbeck, in his 

 voyage from Sweden to China *, met with a iingle 

 houfe fwallow near the Canary Iflands, which was 

 fo tired that it was caught by the failors : Ofbeck 

 alfo ftates, that though it had been fine weather for 

 feveral preceding days, the bird was as wet as if it 

 had juft emerged from the bottom of the fea. 



If this inftance proves any thing, it is the fiib- 

 merfion and not the migration of fwallows fo gene* 

 rally believed in all the. northern parts of Europe* 

 It would fvvell this Letter to a mod unreafonable 

 fize, to touch only upon this litigated point -, and I 

 mail, for the prefent, fupprefs what hath happened 

 to occur to me on this controverted queftion -f a 



* See the lately publiflied tranflation of this voyage. 



t I will, however, mention one moil decifive fact on this 

 head. 



Mr, Stephens, A. S. S. informs me, that, when he was 

 fourteen years of age, a pond of his father's (who was vicar of 

 Shrivenham in Berkftiire) was cleaned, during the month of 

 February ; that he picked up himfelf a clufter of three or four 

 fwallows (or martins), which were caked together in the mud, 

 and that he carried them into the kitchen, on which they foon 

 afterwards flew about the room, in the prefence of his father, 

 mother, and others. Mr. Stephens alfo told me, that his father 

 (who was a naturalift) obferved at the time, he had read of fimilar 

 inftances in the northern writers. This fact is alfo confirmed to 

 me by the Reverend Dr. Pye, who was then at fchool in Shri- 

 venham, as alfo by a very fenfible land-furveyor, who now lives 

 in the village. 



Vol, LXIL P jp Ofbeck 



