NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 179 



some weeks, to a bird, they forsake houses and chimneys, and 

 roost in trees ; and usually withdraw about the beginning of 

 October; though some few stragglers may appear on at times 

 till the first week in November. 



Some few pairs haunt the new and open streets of London next 

 the fields, but do not enter, like the house-martin, the close and 

 crowded parts of the city. 



Both male and female are distinguished from their congeners 

 by the length and forkedness of their tails. They are undoubtedly 

 the most nimble of all the species : and when the male pursues 

 the female in amorous chase, they then go beyond their usual 

 speed, and exert a rapidity almost too quick for the eye to follow. 



After this circumstantial detail of the life and discerning a-ropyrj 

 of the swallow, I shall add, for your farther amusement, an 

 anecdote or two not much in favour of her sagacity : 



A certain swallow built for two years together on the handles 

 of a pair of garden-shears, that were stuck up against the boards 

 in an out-house, and therefore must have her nest spoiled when- 

 ever that implement was wanted : and, what is stranger still, 

 another bird of the same species built its nest on the wings and 

 body of an owl, that happened by accident to hang dead and dry 

 from the rafter of a barn. This owl, with the nest on its wings, 

 and with eggs in the nest, was brought as a curiosity worthy the 

 most elegant private museum in Great Britain. The owner, 

 struck with the oddity of the sight, furnished the bringer with 

 a large shell, or conch, desiring him to fix it just where the owl 

 hung : the person did as he was ordered, and the following year 

 a pair, probably the same pair, built their nest in the conch, and 

 laid their eggs. 



The owl and the conch make a strange grotesque appearance, 

 and are not the least curious specimens in that wonderful collection 

 of art and nature. 



Thus is instinct In animals, taken trie least out of its way, an 

 undistinguishing, limited faculty ; and blind to every circumstance 

 that does not immediately respect self-preservation, or lead at 

 once to the propagation or support of their species. 



I am, with all respect, etc., etc, 



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