80 WHITE 



saken us sooner this year than usual ; for on September 22nd 

 they rendezvoused in a neighbor's walnut-tree, where it 

 seemed probable they had taken up their lodging for the 

 night. At the dawn of the day, which was foggy, they arose 

 all together in infinite numbers, occasioning such a rushing 

 from the strokes of their wings against the hazy air, as might 

 be heard to a considerable distance : since that no flock has 

 appeared, only a few stragglers. 



Some swifts stayed late, till the 22nd August a rare in- 

 stance ! for they usually withdraw within the first week. 



On September 24th three or four ring-ousels appeared in 

 my fields for the first time this season ; how punctual are these 

 visitors in their autumnal and spring migrations ! 



LETTER XXXVIII 



SELBORNE, March i$th, 1773. 



DEAR SIR, By my journal for last autumn it appears that 

 the house-martins bred very late, and stayed very late in these 

 parts; for, on the ist October, I saw young martins in their 

 nest nearly fledged; and again on the 2ist October, we had 

 at the next house a nest full of young martins just ready to 

 fly; and the old ones were hawking for insects with great 

 alertness. The next morning the brood forsook their nest, 

 and were flying round the village. From this day I never saw 

 one of the swallow kind till November 3rd; when twenty, or 

 perhaps thirty, house-martins were playing all day long by the 

 side of the hanging wood, and over my field. Did these small 

 weak birds, some of which were nestling twelve days ago, shift 

 their quarters at this late season of the year to the other side 

 of the northern tropic ? Or rather, is it not more probable 

 that the next church, ruin, chalk-cliff, steep covert, or perhaps 

 sandbank, lake or pool (as a more northern naturalist would 

 say), may become their hybernaculum, and afford them a ready 

 and obvious retreat ? 



We now begin to expect our vernal migration of ring-ousels 

 every week. Persons worthy of credit assure me that ring- 



