6
THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.
viously (28 Feb., 1769), he had written to Pennant, "Only some
stragglers stay behind a long while, and do never, there is the great-
est reason to believe, leave this island."8 He here refers to Swallows.
Robert Marsham's letter to White, dated July 24th, 1790, contains
the following paragraph, "By your account of the Swallows on the
29th of Sept., 1768, I presume that you believe in their migrating;
and there are very strong reasons to believe so of some other birds.
Many Woodcocks are found by the Lighthouses in Norfolk in the
autumn, that are killed by flying against the Lights. And the Earl
of Orford informed me that the Landgrave of Hesse sent him a ring
taken from the leg of an Heron, with Ld. O. name upon it. This
is certain proof of the Heron's going from England. And myself
have seen, coming from Holland, a Wagtail (Motacilla alba) flying
about the ship, seemingly at ease, when out of sight of land. These
without Admiral Wager's, Adanson's and Smith's (the earliest
account that I can recollect in print) are sufficient for migration : and
the proofs for torpidity are also undoubted. So we may conclude
they are both true." 9 This last conclusion I believe, exactly repre-
sents Gilbert White's mature opinion. Dr. Derham believed in bird
migration generally, he only mentions the hybernation of Swallows
in a foot-note to his "Physico-Theology," bk. vii., chap. iii.— "Of
the Migration of Birds." Another Essex ornithologist, George
Edwards, was once a believer in the hibernating theory. In his
"Discourse on the Emigration of British Birds" (p. 9), he says,
"Extraordinary as it may appear, on the 3rd of December, 1771, I
saw a Martin flying about as vigorously as though it had been in the
midst of summer. My curiosity was greatly excited at this remarkable
phenomenon," &c., and a foot-note states : —"Having then made no
researches in natural history, and being quite a novice in ornithology,10
I must confess I was inclined to believe that Martins, Swallows, &c.,
laid motionless all the winter; but now innumerable evidences of an
opposite nature convince me of the contrary."
Swallows are frequently recorded as occurring as late as the first
week in December, and in last week's "Field" Mr. John T. Pytches
records "either Swallows or Martins" flying round St. John's
Church, Woodbridge, Suffolk, on Jan. 17th. This might be
doubted, but in to-day's issue that experienced naturalist Mr.
8 l.c, i. 68. 9 l.c, ii., 245.
10 The date given must be wrong or the foot-note by another hand than Edwards', who was
then seventy-eight, and had for two years retired from public employment. I do not, of course,
find this remark in "The Essays"—Essay iii., pp. 69-112 ; "Of Birds of passage," &c., published
in 1770.