XLIX.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
133 
LETTER XLIX. 
TO THE IIONOUBABLE DAINES BAREINGTON. 
As a gentleman and myself were walking on the 4tli of last 
November round the sea-banks at Xewhaven, near the mouth 
of the Lewes river, in pursuit of natural knowledge, we were 
surprised to see three house-swallows gliding very swiftly by us. 
That morning was rather chilly, with the wind at north-west ; 
but the tenor of the weather for some time before had been 
delicate, and the noons remarkably warm. From this incident, 
and from repeated accounts which I meet with, T am more 
and more induced to believe that many of the swallow kind do 
not depart from this island ; but lay themselves up in holes and 
caverns ; and do, insect-like and bat-like,^ come forth at mild 
1 Concerning swallows, the reader will see that Mr. White appears to 
incline more and more in favour of their torpidity, and against their migra- 
tion. Mr. D. Barrington is still more positive on the same side of the 
question ; yet the ancients generally mention this bird as wintering in Africa. 
See Anacreon Xy. ed. Brunck. p. 38. The Rhodians had a festival called 
■XeKihovia, when the boys brought about young swallows ; the song which they 
sang may be seen in the works of Meursius, v. 3, p. 974, fol. 
"HX^e, "HX^e, x^Kihwv Ka\a€, 
"Qpas uyov(Ta, Koi KoXovi 'F.viavTovs 
"Ent ydarepa XevKci, k eVt voSra pfXacva. 
"He comes ! He comes ! who loves to benr 
Soft sunny hours and seasons fair ; — 
The swallow hither comes to rest 
His sable wing and snowy breast." 
And alluding to this custom, Avienus (who may be considered only as a very 
bad translator of an excellent poem, the "Periegesis" of Dionysius) thus 
says, V. 705, — 
" Nam cum vere novo, tellus se dura relaxat, 
Culminibusque cavis, blandum strepit ales hirund 
Gens devota choros agitat ! " 
" When in early spring the iron soil relaxes, comes the swallow chirping 
pleasantly from the hollow eaves, and the pious people begin to dance." 
From a passage in the " Birds " of Aristophanes, we learn that among the 
Greeks the crane pointed out the time of sowing ; the arrival of the Mte, the 
