thomas] BIRD MIGRATION BY WHITE OF SELBOURNE 393 



coast, the sun broke out into a delicate warm day. We were then 

 on a large heath, and I could discern, as the mist began to break 

 away, great numbers of swallows clustering on the stunted shrubs 

 and bushes, as if they had roosted there all night. As soon as the 

 air became clear and pleasant they were all on the wing at once; 

 and, by a placid and easy flight, proceeded on southward toward 

 the sea." Yet in that same letter he writes, "I have frequently 

 remarked that swallows are seen later at Oxford than elsewhere: 

 is it owing to the vast massy buildings of that place, to the many 

 waters around it, or to what else?" 



How those swallows did perplex him! One of his notes reads, 

 11 1 see by my Fauna of last year, that young broods come forth so 

 late as September 18th. Are not these late hatchings more in 

 favor of hiding than migration and, "About ten years ago I used 

 to spend some weeks yearly at Sunbury which is one of those 

 pleasant villages lying on the Thames, near Hampton Court. In 

 the autumn, I could not help being much amused with those myr- 

 iads of the swallow kind which assemble in those parts. But 

 what struck me most was, that, from the time they began to con- 

 gregate, forsaking the chimnies and houses, they roosted every 

 night in the ozier-beds of the aits of that river. Now this resort- 

 ing towards that element at that season of the year, seems to give 

 some countenance to the northern opinion (strange as it is) of their 

 retiring under water." After having observed some fledgling 

 swallows as late as October 29th, he says, "Now is it likely that 

 these poor little birds which perhaps had not been hatched but .a 

 few weeks, should at that late season of the year, and from so mid- 

 land a country, attempt a voyage to Goree or Senegal, almost as 

 far as the equator?" They had evidently been reported in Adam- 

 son's "Voyage to Senegal." 



In 1774, he seems again to give credence to the old idea of hiding 

 for he writes, " It is worth remarking that these birds are seen first 

 about lakes and ponds ; and it is also very particular, that if these 

 early visitors happen to find frost and snow, as was the case of the 

 two dreadful springs of '70 and '71, they immediately withdraw 

 for a time. A circumstance this much more in favour of hiding 

 than migration ; since it is much more probable that a bird should 

 retire to its hybernaculum just at hand, than return for a week 

 or two only to warmer latitudes." 



