DEFOE ON MIGRATION OF SWALLOWS. 71 
DEFOE ON THE MIGRATION OF SWALLOWS. 
OW that we are looking for the return of the swallows, 
the following extract from Defoe’s Touy through the 
Eastern Counties of England in 1 722, may be interesting. 
Writing of Southwold, in Suffolk, he says : — “ At 
this town in particular, and so at all the towns on this coast, 
from Orfordness to Yarmouth, is the ordinary place where our 
summer friends the swallows first land when they come to 
visit us ; and here they may be said to embark for their return, 
when they go back into warmer climates ; and the following 
remarks may be both instructing as well as diverting. I was 
some years before at this place, at the latter end of the year, 
viz., about the beginning of October, and lodging in a house 
that looked into the churchyard, I observed in the evening, an 
unusual multitude of birds sitting on the leads of the church. 
Curiosity led me to go nearer to see Avhat they were, and I 
found they were all swallows ; that there was such an infinite 
number that they covered the whole roof of the church and of 
several houses near, and perhaps might of more houses which 
I did not see. This led me to inquire of a grave gentleman, 
Avhom I saw near me, what the meaning was of such a pro- 
digious multitude of swallows sitting there. ‘ Oh, sir,’ says he, 
‘ you may see the reason ; the wind is off sea.’ I did not seem 
fully informed by that expression, so he goes on : ‘ I perceive, 
sir, you are a stranger to it ; you must then understand first, 
that this is the season of the year when the swallows, their food 
here failing, begin to leave us, and return to the country, where- 
ever it be, from whence I suppose they came ; and this being 
nearest to the coast of Holland, they come here to embark ; 
and now, sir,’ says he, ‘ the W'eather being too calm or the Avind 
contrary, they are Avaiting for a gale, for they are all Avind- 
bound.’ 
“ This Avas more evident to me, Avhen in the morning 1 
found the Avind had come about to the north-Avest in the night, 
and there A\'as not one SAvalloAV to be seen of near a million, 
Avhich I believ’e Avas there the night before. 
“ Hoav those creatures knoAV that this part of the island of 
Great Britain is the Avay to their home, or the AA'ay that they 
are to go ; that this very point is the nearest cut over, or even 
that the nearest cut is best for them, Ave must leave to the natu- 
ralists to determine, Avho insist upon it that brutes cannot think. 
“ Certain it is that the SAvalloAV’s neither come hither for 
warm Aveather nor retire from cold ; the thing is of quite another 
nature. They, like the shoals of fish in the sea, pursue their 
prey ; they are a A’oracious creature, they feed flying ; their food 
is found in the air, viz., the insects, of Avhich in our summer 
evenings, in damp and moist places, the air is full. They come 
hither in the summer because our air is fuller of fogs and damps 
