[ 2 g 9 ] 
with any fort of precifion, which I fhall juft 
ftate, as I would not decline giving the beft anfwer 
I am able to every argument and fad: which may be 
relied upon, by thofe who contend that birds periodi- 
cally migrate acrofs oceans.. 
On the 30th of March, 1751, Ofbeck, in his 
voyage from Sweden to China *, met with a fingle. 
houfe fwallow near the Canary Iflands, which was 
fo tired that it was caught by the failors : Ofbeck 
alfo ftates, that though it had been fine weather for 
feveral preceding days, the bird was as wet as if it 
had juft emerged from the bottom of the fe'a. 
If this in fiance proves any thing, it is the fub- 
merfion and not the migration of fwallows fo gene* 
rally believed in ail the northern parts of Europe. 
It would fwell this Letter to a moft unreafonable 
fize, to touch only upon this litigated point ; and I 
fhall, for the prefent, fupprefs what hath happened 
to occur to me on this controverted queftion -f% 
* See the lately publifhed tranflation of this voyage. 
f I will, however, mention one molt decifive fa on this 
head. 
Mr. Stephens, A. S. S. informs me, that, when he was 
fourteen years of age, a pond of his father’s (who was vicar of 
Shrivenham in Berkftiire) was cleaned, during the month of 
February ; that he picked up himfelf a clufter of three or four 
fwallows (or martins), which were caked together in the mud, 
and that he carried them into the kitchen, 0:1 which they foon 
afterwards flew about the room, in the prefence of his father, 
mother, and others. Mr. Stephens alfo told me, that his father 
(who was a naturalift) obferved at the time, he had read of fimilar 
inftances in the northern writers. This fa£t is alfo confirmed to 
me by the Reverend Dr. Pye, who was then at fchool ia Shri- 
venham, as alfo by a very fenfible land-iurveyor, who now lives 
in the village. 
Vol. LXXL P p 
Ofbeck 
