HOUSE-MARTINS. 
235 
another element and its inhabitants into our parlours engages the 
fancy in a very agreeable manner. 
Gold and silver fishes, though originally natives of China and 
Japan, yet are become so well reconciled to our climate as to 
thrive and multiply very fast in our ponds and stews. Linnaeus 
ranks this species of fish under the genus of cyprinus, or carp, 
and calls it cyprinus auratus* 
Some people exhibit this sort of fish in a very fanciful way ; 
for they cause a glass bowl to be blown with a large hollow space 
within, that does not communicate with it. In this cavity they 
put a bird occasionally; so that you may see a goldfinch or a 
linnet hopping as it were in the midst of the water, and the fishes 
swimming in a circle round it. The simple exhibition of the 
fishes is agreeable and pleasant ; but in so complicated a way 
becomes whimsical and unnatural, and liable to the objection due 
to him, 
" Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam." 
I am, &c. 
LETTER LV. To the Hon. DAINES HARRINGTON. 
DEAR SIR, Oct. 10, 1781. 
I THINK I have observed before that much the most consider- 
able part of the house-martins withdraw from hence about the 
first week in October; but that some, the latter broods I am 
tiow convinced, linger on till towards the middle of that month : 
and that at times, once perhaps in two or three years, a flight, 
for one day only, has shown itself in the first week in November. 
Having taken notice, in October 1780, that the last flight was 
numerous, amounting perhaps to one hundred and fifty ; and 
that the season was soft and still ; I was resolved to pay uncom- 
mon attention to these late birds ; to find, if possible, where they 
roosted, and to determine the precise time of their retreat. The 
mode of life of these latter hirundines is very favourable to such 
a design ; for they spend the whole day in the sheltered district, 
between me and the Hanger, sailing about in a placid, easy 
manner, and feasting on those insects which love to haunt a spot 
* A name that is still retained. — Ep. 
