28 NATURAL HISTORY 



was a schoolboy at Brightlielmstone, in Sussex, a great frag- 

 ment of the chalk-cliff fell down one stormy winter on the 

 beach ; and that many people found swallows among the 

 rubbish ; but, on my questioning him whether he saw any 

 of those birds himself ; to my no small disappointment, he 

 answered me in the negative ; but that others assured him 

 they did. 



Young broods of swallows began to appear this year on 

 July the llth, and young martins (hirundines urbicce) were 

 then fledged in their nests. Both species will breed again 

 once. For I see by my fauna of last year, that young broods 

 came forth so late as September the eighteenth. Are not 

 these late hatchings more in favour of hiding than migration ? 

 Nay, some young martins remained in their nests last year so 

 late as September the twenty-ninth ; and yet they totally dis- 

 appeared with us by the fifth of October. 



How strange is it that the swift, which seems to live exactly 

 the same life with the swallow and house-martin, should 

 leave us before the middle of August invariably ! while the 

 latter stay often till the middle of October; and once I saw 

 numbers of house-martins on the seventh of November*. The 



* [In Mr. Bennett's edition, Mr. Yarrell has the following note : 

 (i Upwards of a hundred of these birds, collected and apparently going off, 

 were seen on the 13th of November 1831 at Dover." In Letter XXI. 

 (page 60) White states that lt one of his neighbours saw a martin in a 

 sheltered bottom on the 26th of November hawking briskly after flies," 

 and deduces from this fact a confirmation of his belief " that they do not 

 all leave this island in the winter." The following note from my friend 

 Montague Knight, Esq., of Chawton House, about four miles from 

 Selborne, shows a very remarkable delay; it is dated November 22, 

 1873 : t( Are not swallows and martins very late in taking their de- 

 parture this year ? I saw some swallows here on the 12th instant, and 

 yesterday, the 21st, was much surprised to see some six or seven house- 

 martins wheeling round the house. On both occasions the weather was 

 bright and sunny. Gilbert White would. have said that they were 

 attracted by the sun from their hiding-places." 



On the reappearance of swallows after their temporary departure, I find 

 the following remarks in my notes of the year 1862 : Oct. 10th. The 

 swallows disappeared in general this day. Oct. 26th. The swallows 

 reappeared this morning in hundreds, and were very active. All were 

 young birds apparently, as the tails were all short. 27th. Most of the 



