X.] 
31 
waters where insects are to be found ? Certain it is that 
hardly any iiidividnals have, at such times, been seen fur days 
together. 
September 13, 1791, the congregating flocks of hirundines 
on the church and tower are both beautiful and amusing. When 
tliey fly off together from the roof on any alarm, they quite 
swarm in the air. But they soon settle again in heaps, and 
pulling their feathers and lifting up their wings to admit the sim, 
they seem to enjoy the warm situation. Thus they spend the 
heat of the day, preparing for their migration, and, as it were, 
consulting when and where they are to go. The flight about 
the church seems to consist chiefly of house-martins, about 400 
in number ; but there are other places of rendezvous about the 
village frequented at the same time. It is remarkable that, 
though most of them sit on the battlements and roof, yet many 
of them hang or cling for some time by their claws against the 
surface of the w^alls in a manner not practised by them at other 
times of their remaining with us. The swallows seem to delight 
more in holding their assemblies on trees. 
" ^Tovember 3, 1789, the swallows were seen this morning, at 
Newton Vicarage house, hovering and settling on the roofs and 
outbuildings. None have been observed at Selborne since October 
11. It is very remarkable that after the hirundines have disap- 
peared for some weeks, a few are occasionally seen again ; some- 
times in the first week of November, and that only for one day. 
Do they not withdraw and slumber in some hiding-place during 
the interval ? for we cannot suppose they had migrated to warmer 
climes, and returned again for one day. Is it not more probable 
that they are awakened from sleep, and like the bats are come 
forth to collect a little food ? These swallows looked like 
young ones."] 
A little yellow bird (the Motacilla trochilus) still continues 
to make a sibilous shivering noise in the tops of tall woods. 
The stoparola of Eay is called, in your Zoology, the fly-catcher. 
There is one circumstance characteristic of this bird, which 
seems to have escaped observation, and that is, it takes its stand 
on the top of some stake or post, from whence it springs 
forth on its prey, catching a fly in the air, and hardly ever 
