OF SELBORNE. 
167 
LETTER XVIIL 
TO THE SAME. 
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Jan. 29, 1774.. 
The houfe-fwallow, or chimney-fvvallow, is undoubtedly the firft 
comer of all the Bjiti/Jj hirundines ; and appears in general on or 
about the thirteenth of April, as I have remarked from many years 
obfervation. Not but now and then a llraggler is feen much 
earher : and, in particular, when I was a boy I obferved a fwallow 
for a whole day together on a funny warm Shrove 7'uefday ; whicli 
day could not fall out later than the middle of March, and often 
happened early in February. 
It is worth remarking that thefe birds are feen firll about lakes 
and mill-ponds ; and it is alfo very particular, that if thefe early 
vifiters happen to find froft and fnow, as was the cafe of the two 
dreadful fprings of 1770 and 1771, they immediately withdraw 
for a time. A circumftance this much more in favour of hiding 
than migration ; fince it is much more probable that a bird fhould 
retire to it's hybernaculum juft at hand, than return for a week or 
two only to warmer latitudes. 
The fwallow, though called the chimney-fwallow, by no means 
builds altogether in chimnies, but often within barns and out- 
houfes againll the rafters ; and fo flie did in FirglFs time : 
— • — — — " Ante 
" Garrula q^uam tlgnis nidos fufpendat hixundo," 
In 
