thomas] BIRD MIGRATION BY WHITE OF SELBOURNE 395 



for a short time, and then flew over the houses." This incident 

 seems to me particularly humorous, for the martin observed was 

 in all probability the first of its kind to arrive and that it should 

 have done so on the very day that White had chosen to find their 

 hiding place was indeed an amusing coincidence. He was abso- 

 lutely sure, however, that bank swallows did not use their caverns 

 in the banks for hibernation in the winter for he says, "The follow- 

 ing circumstance should by no means be omitted — that these birds 

 do not make use of their caverns by way of hybernacula, as might 

 be expected; since banks so perforated have been dug out with 

 care in the winter, when nothing was found but empty nests.' 



As to the Ring-ousel, this was a bird newly discovered by White, 

 about which he could find no records from any other observer. 

 The bird was not a summer resident at Selbourne, like the swal- 

 lows, but only a transient visitant. He did not know whether it 

 was from England or northern Europe, but, evidently, was quite 

 certain of its migration for he writes to Pennant, "Your approba- 

 tion with regard to my new discovery of the migration of the ring- 

 ousel, gives me satisfaction; and I find you concur with me in 

 suspecting that they are foreign birds which visit us. What 

 puzzles me most, is the very short stay they make with us; for in 

 about three weeks they are all gone." Later he says, "Since the 

 ring-ousels of your vast mountains do certainly not forsake them 

 against winter, our suspicions that those which visit this neighbor- 

 hood about Michaelmas are not Eng. birds, but driven from the 

 northern parts of Europe by the frosts, are still more reasonable; 

 and it will be worth your pains to endeavor to trace from whence 

 they come, and to inquire why they make so very short a stay." 

 That same autumn he states, "Those birds were most punctual 

 again in their migration this autumn, appearing ,as before, about 

 the 30th of September. If they came to spend the whole winter 

 with us as some of their congeners do, and then left us, as they do, 

 in the spring, I should not be so much struck with the occurrence, 

 since it would be similar to that of the other winter birds of pas- 

 sage ; but when I see them for a fortnight at Michaelmas, and again 

 for about a week in the middle of April, I am seized with wonder, 

 and long to be informed whence these travellers come, and whither 

 they go, since they seem to use our hills merely as an inn or baiting 

 place." 



