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2iS NATURAL HISTORY | 
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LETTER XXXVL 
TO THE SAME. 
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Nov. 22, 1777. 
You cannot but remember that the twenty-fixth and twenty- 
feventh of laft March were very hot days ; fo fultry that every 
body complained and were reftlefs under diofe fenfations to which 
they had not been reconciled by gradual approaches. 
This fudden fummer-like heat was" attended by many fummer 
coincidences; for oa thofe two days the thermometer rofe to 
fixty-fix in the fliade ; many fpecies of infefts revived and came 
forth ; fome bees fwarmed in this neighbourhood ; the old tortoife, 
near Lezves, in SuJJex, awakened and came forth out of it's dormi- 
tory; and, what is moft to my prefent purpofe, many houfe-fivallozvs- 
appeared and were very alert in many places, and particularly at 
Cohham, in Surrey. 
But as that fliort warm period was fucceeded as well as preceded 
by harfli fevere weather, with frequent frofts and ice, and cutting, 
winds, the infeds withdrew, the tortoife retired again into the 
ground, and the fwallows were feen no more until the tenth of 
April, when, the rigour of the fpring abating, a fofter feafon began 
to prevail. 
Again ; it appears by my journals for many years paft that houfe- 
martins retire, to a bird, about the beginning of O^oher ; fo that a 
perfon not very obfei vant of fuch matters would conclude that they 
liad 
