L E T T E R XXIIL
T O TH E S AM E -
D E A R S IR , -Seleorne, February iS, 1789.
I t is not improbable that the Guernfey lizard and our green
lizards may be fpecifically the fame; all that I know is, that,
when fome years ago many Guernfey lizards were turned loofe in
Pembroke college garden, in the univerfity o f Oxford, they lived a
great while, and feemed to enjoy themfelves very well, but never
bred- Whether this circumftance will prove any thing either way
I fhall not pretend to fay.
I return -you thanks for your account of OreQi-hpll; but recoiled!,
not without regret, that in June 1746 I was vifiting for a week together
at Sp«fc%,-.withoutever being told that fuch a curiofity was
juft at hand. Pray fend me word in your next what fort of tree it is
that contains fuch a quantity of herons’ nefts ; and whether the
heronry confifts of a whole grove or wood, or only of a few trees.
It- gave me fatisfadtion to find we accorded fo well about the
caprimulgus: all I contended for was to prove that it often chatters
-fitting as well as flying; and therefore the noife was voluntary,
and from organic impulfe, and not from the reliftance of the air
againft the hollow of it’s mouth and throat.
I f ever I faw any thing like adtual migration, it was laft
,Michaelmas-day. I was travelling, and out early in the morning: at
firft there was a vaft fog ; but, by the time that I was got feven or
eight miles from home towards the coaft, the fun broke out into a
delicate
•delicate warm day. We were then on a large heath or common, and
I could difcern,.as the.mitt began to break away, great numbers of
fwallows (hirundines rujliue') cluttering on the ftunted fhrubs and
bufhes, as if they had roofted there all night. As foon as the-air
became clear* and pjeafant they all were on the wing at once.;
an.d, by .a placid and eafy flight, proceeded on fouthward towards
the fea ■ after this I did not fee any more flocks, only now
and then a ftraggler.
I cannot agree with thofe perfons that affert that the fwallow kind
difappear fome and fome gradually, as they come, for the bulk of
them feem to withdraw at once : only fome ftragglers ftay behind a
long while, and do never, there 'is the 'greateft reafon to believe,
leave this ifland. Swallows feem to lay themfelves up, and to
come forth in a warm day, as bats do continually of a warm
evening, after they have difappeared for weeks. For a very refpec-
table gentleman allured me that, as he was walking with fomefriends
under Merton-wall on a remarkably hot noon, either-, in the laft week
in December or the firft week in January, he efpied three, or four
fwallows huddled together on the moulding of one of the windows
of, that college. I have frequently remarked that fwallows are.-feen
later at Oxford than elfewhere: ■ is it owing, to the vaft maffy buildings
of that place, to the many waters round it, or to what elfe ?
When I ufed to rife in a.morning laft autumn, and fee the
fwallows and martins cluttering on the chimnies and thatch of the
neighbouring cottages, I could not help being touched with, a,
fecret delight, mixed with fome degree of mortification: with
delight, to obferve with how much ardour and punduality thofe.
poor little birds obeyed the ftrong impulfe towards migration, or,
hiding, imprinted on their minds by their great Creator; .and with,
fome degree of mortification, when I refl.eded that, after all our.,
K pains