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be recollected, that they probably procure more food in fnch fltua- 

 tions when on the wing, whatever may have been their winter 

 refidence. By the latter end of April the fwallow-tribe appears in 

 numbers. 



I mail now ftate fuch facts as I have myfelf obferved, or re- 

 ceived from ingenious correfpondents, in relation to each fpecies 

 of fwallow, and without hefitation make my own inferences, 

 leaving them to be corrected by thofe who may be more fortunate 

 in collecting more decifive inftances. 



I mall begin with the Swallow, as Mr. Pennant does in his 

 Britim Zoology d ; and premife that I mean the fpecies whofe tail is 

 moft fork'd, and which is mark'd with a red fpot on the forehead 

 and chin e . 



This bird appears the firit of its tribe, and (as I conceive at 

 lean) hides itfelf under water during the winter, becaufe, in the 

 few inflances where the relator hath been able to particularize 

 the fpecies thus found, it hath happened to be a fwallow. 



There is fcarcely a treatife on ornithology, written in the 

 Northern parts of Europe, which does not allude to the fubmer- 

 fion of fwallows during the winter, as a fact almoft as well 

 known as their peopling the air during the fummer ; and becaufe 

 the name of Linnaeus is refpedted by moft of the incredulous on 

 this head, I copy from him the following words in the defcrip- 

 tion of the bird. 



" Hirundo habitat in Europae domibus intra tectum, 



" unaque cum urbica demergitur, vereque emergit'." 



d Vol.11, p. 282. 



c This diftinguilhes the bird at once to every reader ; but, if I was to 

 call it the Hirundo Ruftica of Linnasus, few would comprehend what 

 bird I meant, as the continuing in the country is much more applicable 

 to the fand martin. 



f Syftema Naturje, 1766. This authority indeed extends alfo to 

 Martins, 



It 



