LVI.] OF SELBORNE. 151 



district where they are bred, they must undergo vast devasta- 

 tions somehow, and somewhere ; for the birds that return 

 yearly bear no manner of proportion to the birds that retire. 



House-martins are distinguished from their congeners by 

 having their legs covered with soft, downy feathers down to 

 their toes. They are no songsters ; but twitter in a pretty 

 inward soft manner in their nests. During the time of breed- 

 ing they are often greatly molested with fleas. 



SELBORNE, Nov. 20, 17~:i. 



LETTER LVI. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTOX. 



your last favour just as I was setting out for this 

 place ; and am pleased to find that my monograph met with 

 your approbation. My remarks are the result of many years 

 observation ; and are, I trust, true in the whole : though I do 

 not pretend to say that they are perfectly void of mistake, or 

 that a more nice observer might not make many additions, 

 since subjects of this kind are inexhaustible. 



If you think my letter worthy the notice of your respectable 

 society, you are at liberty to lay it before them ; and they will 

 consider it, I hope, as it was intended, as a humble attempt to 

 promote a more minute inquiry into natural history; into the 

 life and conversation of animals. Perhaps hereafter I may be 

 induced to take the house-swallow under consideration ; and 

 from that proceed to the rest of the British kirundincs. 



Though I have now travelled the Sussex Downs upwards of 

 thirty years, I still investigate that chain of majestic mountains 

 with fresh admiration year by year; and think I see new 

 beauties every time I traverse it. This range, which runs from 

 Chichester eastward as far as Eastbourne, is about sixty miles 

 in length, and is called the South Downs, properly speaking, 



