200 NATURAL HISTORY 
LETTER XVIII. 
Selborne, Jan. 29, 1774. 
Dear Sir,—-Tue house-swallow or chimney- 
swallow is undoubtedly the first comer of all the 
British hirundines, and appears in general on or 
about the 13th of April, as I have remarked from 
many years’ observation. Not but that now and 
then a straggler is seen much earlier; and, in par- 
ticular, when I was a boy, I observed a swallow 
for a whole day together on a sunny warm Shrove 
Tuesday, which day could not fall out later than 
the middle of March, and often happened early in 
February. 
It is worth remarking, that these birds are seen 
first about lakes and millponds ;. and it is also very. 
particular, that if these early visiters happen to 
find frost and snow, as was the case of the two 
dreadful springs of 1770 and 1771, they immedi- 
ately withdraw for a time; a circumstance, this, 
much more in favour of hiding than migration, since 
it is much more probable that a bird should retire 
such close community. And yet, if a pair offer to build ona 
single tree, the nest is plundered and demolished at once. 
Some rooks roost on their nest-trees. The twigs which the 
rooks drop in building supply the poor with brushwood to light 
their fires. Some unhappy pairs are not permitted to finish any 
nests till the rest have completed their building. As soon as 
they get a few sticks together, a party comes and demolishes | 
' the whole. As soon as the rooks have finished their nests, and — 
before they lay, the cocks begin to feed the hens, who 
ough 
Birds. 
t 
% 
the whole season of hatching.—Wu1TE’s Observations on 
a 
