120 NATURAL HISTORY 
nest full of young martins just ready to fly, and the 
old ones were hawking for insects with great alert- 
ness. ‘The next morning the brood forsook their 
nest and were flying round the village. From this 
day I never saw one of the swallow kind till No- 
vember the 3d, when twenty, or perhaps thirty, 
house-martins were playing all day long by the side 
of the Hanging Wood and over my fields. Did 
these small weak birds, some of which were nest. 
ling twelve days ago, shift their quarters at this 
late season of the year to the other side of the north. 
erntropic? Or, rather, is it not more probable that 
the next church, ruin, chalk-cliff, steep covert, or 
perhaps sandbank, lake, or pool (as a more north- 
ern naturalist would say), may become their hyber. 
naculum, and afford them a ready and obvious re 
treat ? 
We are beginning to expect our vernal migra. 
tions of ringousels every week. Persons worthy 
of credit assure me that ringousels were seen at 
Christmas, 1770, in the forest of Bere, on the south-_ 
ern verge of this county. Hence we may con 
