Jlouse - martin 



LETTER XVI. 



fro 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, Nov. 2oth, 1773. 



EAR SIR, In obedience to your injunctions, 

 I sit down to give you some account of the 

 house-martin, or martlet ; and if my mono- 

 graphy of this little domestic and familiar 

 bird should happen to meet with your appro- 

 bation, I may probably soon extend my in- 

 quiries to the rest of the British hirundines 

 the swallow, the swift, and the bank-martin [sand-martin]. 



A few house-martins begin to appear about the i6th of 

 April ; usually some few days later than the swallow. For 

 some time after they appear the hirundines in general pay no 

 attention to the business of nidification, but play and sport 

 about, either to recruit from the fatigue of their journey, if 

 they do migrate at all, or else that their blood may recover its 



