146 WHITE 



those of their congeners, with gnats and other small insects ; 

 and sometimes they are fed with libellulce (dragon-flies) almost 

 as long as themselves. In the last week in June we have seen 

 a row of these sitting on a rail near a great pool as perchers, 

 and so young and helpless, as easily to be taken by hand ; but 

 whether the dams ever feed them on the wing, as swallows and 

 house-martins do, we have never yet been able to determine ; 

 nor do we know whether they pursue and attack birds of prey. 



When they happen to breed near hedges and enclosures, they 

 are dispossessed of their breeding holes by the house-sparrow, 

 which is on the same account a fell adversary to house-martins. 



These hirundines are no songsters, but rather mute, making 

 only a little harsh noise when a person approaches their nests. 

 They seem not to be of a sociable turn, never with us con- 

 gregating with their congeners in the autumn. Undoubtedly 

 they breed a second time, like the house-martin and swallow ; 

 and withdraw about Michaelmas. 



Though in some particular districts they may happen to 

 abound, yet in the whole, in the south of England at least, is 

 this much the rarest species. For there are few towns or large 

 villages but what abound with house-martins ; few churches, 

 towers, or steeples, but what are haunted by some swifts; 

 scarce a hamlet or single cottage-chimney that has not its 

 swallow; while the bank-martins, scattered here and there, 

 live a sequestered life among some abrupt sand-hills, and in 

 the banks of some few rivers. 



These birds have a peculiar manner of flying; flitting about 

 with odd jerks and vacillations, not unlike the motions of a 

 butterfly. Doubtless the flight of all hirundines is influenced 

 by, and adapted to, the peculiar sort of insects which furnish 

 their food. Hence it would be worth inquiry to examine what 

 particular genus of insects affords the principal food of each 

 respective species of swallow. 



Notwithstanding what has been advanced above, some few 

 sand-martins, I see, haunt the skirts of London, frequenting 

 the dirty pools in Saint George's Fields, and about White- 

 chapel. The question is where these build, since there are 

 no banks or bold shores in that neighborhood : perhaps they 

 nestle in the scaffold holes of some old or new deserted build- 



