O F S E L B O R N E. 65 
•delicate warm day. We were then on a large heath or common, and 
I could difcern, as the mift began to break away, great numbers of 
fwallows {Jnr undines rufi'iccc^ cluftering on the ftunted flirubs and 
buflies, as if they had roofted there all night. As foon as the air 
became clear and pleafant they all were on the wing at once ; 
■and, by a placid and eafy flight, proceeded on fouthward to- 
wards the fea : after this I did not fee any more flocks, onl)- now 
and then a ftraggler. 
I cannot agree with thofe perfons that aflert that the fwallow kind 
tlifappear fome and fome gradually, as they come, for the bulk of 
them feem to withdraw at once : only fome ftragg;lers ftay behind a 
long while, and do never, there Is the greateft reafon to believe, 
leave this ifland. Swallows feem to lay themfelvcs up, and to 
come forth in a warm day, as bats do continually of a warm 
evening, after they have difappeared for weeks. For a very refpec- 
table gentleman aflured me that, as he was walking with fome friends 
nnder Merton-wall on a remarkably hot noon, either in the laft week 
in December or the firfl: week in January, he efpied three or four 
fwallows huddled together on the moulding of one of the windows 
of that college. I have frequently remarked that fwallows are feen 
later a.t Oxford than elfewhcre : is it owing to the vaft mafly build- 
ings of that place, to the many waters round it, or to what elfe ? 
When I ufed to rife in a morning laft autumn, and fee the 
fwallows and martins cluflering on the chimnies and thatch of the 
neighbouring cottages, I could not help being touched with a 
fecret delight, mixed with fome degree of mortification ; with 
delight, to obferve with how much ardour and punduailty thof.; 
poor little birds obeyed the ftrong impulfe towards migration, or 
hiding, imprinted on their minds by their great Creator; and vv-ith 
fome degree of mortification;, when I refledled that, after all our 
K pains 
