SAND-MARTINS. 193 



LETTER LIX. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, February 26, 1774. 



DEAR SIR, 



THE sand-martin or bank-martin, is by much the 

 least of any of the British hirundines, and, as far as 

 we have ever seen, the smallest known hirundo; though 

 Brisson asserts that there is one much smaller, and 

 that is the hirundo esculent a. 



But it is much to be regretted, that it is scarce 

 possible for any observer to be so full and exact as he 

 could wish, in reciting the circumstances attending 

 the life and conversation of this little bird, since it is 

 fera natura, at least in this part of the kingdom, dis- 

 claiming all domestic attachments, and haunting wild 

 heaths and commons where there are large lakes ; while 

 the other species, especially the swallow and house- 

 martin, are remarkably gentle and domesticated, and 

 never seem to think themselves safe but under the 

 protection of man. 



Here are in this parish, in the sand-pits and banks 

 of the lake of Wolmer Forest, several colonies of 

 these birds ; and yet they are never seen in the vil- 

 lage, nor do they at all frequent the cottages that are 

 scattered about in that wild district. The only in- 

 stance I ever remember where this species haunts any 

 building, is at the town of Bishop's Waltham, in this 

 county, where many sand-martins nestle and breed in 

 the scaffold holes of the back wall of William of 

 Wykeham's stables ; but then this wall stands in ji 

 very sequestered and retired enclosure, and faces upon 

 a large and beautiful lake. And, indeed, this species 

 seems so to delight in large waters, that no instance 

 o 



