- martin 



LETTER XVI. 



'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 monography of 

 this little domestic and familiar bird should 

 happen to meet with your approbation, I may 

 probably soon extend my inquiries 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 1 6th 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 true tone and texture after it has been so long 



