OF SELBORNE. 1 



19 



vember, more than twenty house-martins, 

 which, in appearance, had all departed 

 about the seventh of October, were seen 

 again, for that one morning only, sporting 

 between my fields and the Hanger, and 

 feasting on insects which swarmed in that 

 sheltered district. The preceding day was 

 wet and blustering, but the fourth was dark 

 and mild, and soft, the wind at south-west, 

 and the thermometer at 58|- ; a pitch not 

 common at that season of the year. More- 

 over, it may not be amiss to add in this 

 place that whenever the thermometer is 

 above 50, the bat comes flitting out in 

 every Autumnal and Winter month. 



From all these circumstances laid toge- 

 ther, it is obvious that torpid insects, rep- 

 tiles, and quadrupeds, are awakened from 

 their profoundest slumbers by a little un- 

 timely warmth ; and therefore that nothing 

 so much promotes this death-like stupor as 

 a defect of heat. And farther, it is reason- 

 able to suppose that two whole species, or 

 at least many individuals of those two 

 species, of British hir undines, do never leave 

 c 2 



