NxiTUKAL HISTOEY OF SELBORNE. 
153 
LETTEE XXXYI.* ■ 
TO THE SAME. 
Selborne, Nov. ^^%d, 1777. 
Dear Sir, — You cannot but remember that the 26th and 27th of last 
March were very hot days, — so sultry that everybody complained and 
were restless under those sensations to which they had not been 
reconciled by gradual approaches. 
This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many summer coin- 
cidences ; for on those two days the thermometer rose to sixty-six in 
the shade ; many species of insects revived and came forth ; some bees 
swarmed in this neighbourhood; the old tortoise, near Lewes, in 
Sussex, awakened and came forth out of its dormitory ; and, what is 
most to my present purpose, many house-swallows appeared and were 
very alert in many places, and particularly at Chobham, in Surrey. 
But as that short warm period was succeeded as well as preceded by 
harsh severe weather, with frequent frosts and ice, and cutting winds, 
the insects withdrew, the tortoise retired again into the ground, and 
the swallows were seen no more until the 10th of April, when, the 
rigour of the spring abating, a softer season began to prevail. 
Again ; it appears by my journals for many years past that house- 
martins retire, to a bird, about the beginning of October ; so that a 
person not very observant of much matters would conclude that they 
had taken their last farewell ; but then it may be seen in my diaries 
•Iso that considerable flocks have discovered themselves again in the 
first week of November, and often on the 4th day of that month only 
for one day ; and that not as if they were in actual migration, but 
playing about at their leisure and feeding calmly, as if no enterprise of 
moment at all agitated their spirits. And this was the case in the 
beginning of this very month ; for on the 4th of November, more than 
twenty house-martins, which, in appearance, had all departed about the 7th 
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 4th was dark, and mild, and soft, the wind at south-west, and the 
thermometer at ; a pitch not common at that season of the year. 
Moreover, 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 together, it is obvious that torpid 
insects, reptiles, and quadrupeds, are awakened from their profoundest 
* This letter was first published by Barringtoii in his "Miscellanies," in an essay 
"On the Torpidity of the Swallow Tribe, when they Disappear," p. 225, and is 
prefaced as follows: "I shall here subjoin a letter which I received from that 
ingenious and observant naturalist, the Rev. Mr. White, of Selborne, in Hamp- 
shire." It appears to have been printed as received. The opinions given in this 
letter have been generated apparently by his correspondence with Barrington, 
and those contained in the last paragraph especially, or in Letter LY. , cannot be 
maintained. 
