This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many summer
coincidences; for on those two days the thermometer rose to sixty-
six in the shade; many species of insects revived and came forth;
some bees swarmed in this neighbourhood; the old tortoise, near
Lewes in Sussex, awakened and came forth out of its dormitory;
and, what is most to my present purpose, many house-swallows
appeared and were very alert in many places, and particularly at
Cobham, in Surrey.
But as that short warm period was succeeded as well as preceded
by harsh severe weather, with frequent frosts and ice, and cutting
winds, the insects withdrew, the tortoise retired again into the
ground, and the swallows were seen no more until the tenth of
April, when, the rigour of the spring abating, a softer season began
to prevail.
Again; it appears by my journals for many years past, that house-
martins retire, to a bird, about the beginning of October; so that a
person not very observant of such matters would conclude that they
had taken their last farewell: but then it may be seen in my diaries
also that considerable flocks have discovered themselves again in
the first week of November, and often on the fourth day of that
month only for one day; and that not as if they were in actual
migration, but playing about at their leisure and feeding calmly, as
if no enterprise of moment at all agitated their spirits.
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