52 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
De 2, Be 
TO THE SAME. 
SELBORNE, Set. 37d, 1781. 
I HAVE now read your miscellanies through with much care and 
satisfaction ; and am to return you my best thanks for the honour- 
able mention made in them of meas a naturalist, which I wish I 
may deserve. 
In some former letters I expressed my suspicions that many of 
the house-martins do not depart in the winter far from this village. 
I therefore determined to make some search about the south-east 
end of the hill, where I imagined they might slumber out the un- 
comfortable months of winter. But supposing that the examination 
would be made to the best advantage in the spring, and observing 
that no martins had appeared by the 11th of April last ; on that 
day I employed some men to explore the shrubs and cavities of the 
suspected spot. The persons took pains, but without any success ; 
however, a remarkable incident occurred in the midst of our 
pursuit : while the labourers were at work, a house-martin, the 
first that had been seen this year, came down the village in the 
sight of several people, and went at once into a nest, where it 
stayed a short time, and then flew over the houses ; for some days 
after no martins were observed, not till the 16th of April, and then 
only a pair. Martins in general were remarkably late this year. 
