[ l 97 ] 



the veffel was fo near the coaft, this feems to be only a flitting 

 from headland to headland. 



On the 30th of March, 1 75 1 , Ofbeck, in his voyage from 

 Sweden to China y , met with a fingle 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 jufl: 

 emerged from the bottem of the fea. 



If this inftance proves any thing, it is the fubmerfion and not 

 the migration of fwallows fo generally believed in all the northern 

 parts of Europe. It would fwell this Effay to a moft unreafon- 

 able 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 quefHon. 



Ofbeck afterwards, in the courfe of his voyage, mentions, 

 that a fwallow (indefinitely) followed the fhip, near Java, on 

 the 24th of July, and another on the 14th of Auguft, in the 

 Chinefe fea, as he terms it. 



After what I have obferved before with regard to other in- 

 fiances of the fame fort, I need fcarcely fay that this naturaiift 

 does not ftate of what fpecies thefe fwallows were ; and that, 

 from the latitudes in which they were feen, they muft have been 

 fome of the Afiatic kinds. 



I cannot, however, difmifs this article of the fwallow, without 

 adding fome general reafons, which feem to prove the great im- 

 probability of this or any other bird's periodically migrating over 

 wide tracts of fea ; and I the rather do it in this place, becaufe 

 the fwallow is commonly pitched upon as the moft notorious in- 

 ftance of fuch a regular paffage. 



y See the lately publifhed tranflation of this voyage. ' 



This 



