88 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
assertion I know to be wrong from repeated observation this sum- 
mer ; for house-martins do feed their young flying, though it must 
be acknowledged not so commonly as the house-swallow ; and the 
feat is done in so quick a manner as not to be perceptible to 
indifferent observers. Heaiso advances some (I was going to say) 
improbable facts; as when he says of the woodcock that “ pullos 
vostro portat fugiens ab hoste.” But candour forbids me to say 
absolutely that any fact is false, because I have never been witness 
to such a fact. I have only to remark that the long unwieldy bill 
of the woodcock is perhaps the worst adapted of any among the 
winged creation for such a feat of natural affection. 
Iam, &c. 
