HOUSE-MARTINS. 269 



LETTEE XCV. 



TO THE HOtf. DAOTES BARRINGTOtf. 



SELBORNE, Sept. 12, 1771. 



I HAYE now read your Miscellanies through with much care 

 and satisfaction ; and am to return you my best thanks for 

 the honourable mention made in them of me as 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 uncomfortable 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 llth of April last, on that day I em- 

 ployed 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. 



LETTEE XCVI. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Sept. 9, 1781. 



I HATE just met with a circumstance respecting swifts, which 

 furnishes an exception to the whole tenor of my observations 

 ever since I have bestowed any attention on that species of 

 hirundines. Our swifts, in general, withdrew this year about 



