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had been brought out of their winter quarters by the 
finenefs of the afternoon, it being remarkably pleafant 
and warm for the time of the year; the Sun at that 
time darting its rays directly againfl the rocks, juft 
oppolite to which I had fixed my ftation. They conti- 
nued to flit to and fro for near half an hour, keeping very 
near together, and never flying in a direcft line above 
thirty or forty yards, and never, when at the fartheft, 
above a hundred yards diftant from the rocks ; clofer to 
which they now, as the Sun lowered, began to gather 
very fail. Their numbers now lefTened confiderably; and 
in a very fliort time they all returned into the fiflures of 
the rocks, from whence they had been induced to venture 
out by the. warmth of the evening. I was particularly 
careful to obferve if there was a fwallow amongft them ; 
, but there was not one. Of this I am certain ; for they 
were feveral times within the diftance of twenty yards 
from the places where I flood. I was the more attentive 
to this, as I had been repeatedJy alTured, by many mafle^s 
of veflels in the filh-trade, that they conflantly faw every 
autumn, as they failed up the Mediterranean, vafl flights 
of 1 wallows, bending their courfe towards the South. 
From Vv^hich there is the flrongefl reafon to believe, that 
thefe birds, during the winter months, do feek a wurmer 
climate; though Mr. buffon has, for. want of pofitive 
evidence, left that point undetermined. The above 
account, of which I am at all times ready to attefl the 
truth, fettling the queflion, relative to martins, be- 
yond any donbt, is the befl apology I can make for 
the 
