OF SELBORNE. 249 



end of the bill. This spot in many respects seems to be well 

 calculated for their winter residence : for in many parts it is 

 as steep as the roof of any house, and therefore secure from 

 the annoyances of water; and it is moreover clothed with 

 beecben shrubs, which, being stunted and bitten by sheep, 

 make the thickest covert imaginable; and are so entangled 

 as to be impervious to the smallest spaniel : besides, it is the 

 nature of underwood beech never to cast it's leaf all the 

 winter ; so that, with the leaves on the ground and those on 

 the twigs, no shelter can be more complete. I watched them 

 on to the thirteenth and fourteenth of October, and found 

 their evening retreat was exact and uniform ; but after this 

 they made no regular appearance. Now and then a straggler 

 was seen ; and on the twenty-second of October, I observed 

 two in the morning over the village, and with them my re- 

 marks for the season ended. 



From all these circumstances put together, it is more than 

 probable that this lingering flight, at so late a season of the 

 year, never departed from the island. Had they indulged me 

 that autumn with a November visit, as I much desired, I pre- 

 sume that, with proper assistants, I should .have settled the 

 matter past all doubt ; but though the third of November was 

 a sweet day, and in appearance exactly suited to my wishes, 

 yet not a martin was to be seen ; and so I was forced, reluc- 

 tantly, to give up the pursuit. 



I have only to add that were the bushes, which cover some 

 acres, and are not my own property, to be grubbed and care- 

 fully examined, probably those late broods, and perhaps the 

 whole aggregate body of the house-martins of this district, 

 might be found there, in different secret dormitories ; and 

 that, so far from withdrawing into warmer climes, it would 

 appear that they never depart three hundred yards from the 

 village. 



