The Natural History of Selborne 219 



Street ; but then it was obvious from the dinginess of their aspect 

 that their feathers partook of the filth of that sooty atmosphere. 

 Martins are by far the least agile of the four species ; their wings and 

 tails are short, and therefore they are not capable of such surprising 

 turns, and quick and glancing evolutions as the swallow. Accord- 

 ingly they make use of a placid easy motion in a middle region of 

 the air, seldom mounting to any great height, and never sweeping 

 long together over the surface of the ground or water. They do 

 not wander far for food, but affect sheltered districts, over some 

 lake, or under some hanging wood, or in some hollow vale, especially 

 in windy weather. They breed the latest of all the swallow kind : 

 in 1772 they had nestlings on to October 2ist, and are never without 

 unfledged young as late as Michaelmas. 



As the summer declines the congregating flocks increase in numbers 

 daily by the constant accession of the second broods ; till at last they 

 swarm in myriads upon myriads round the villages on the Thames, 

 darkening the face of the sky as they frequent the aits [eyots] of 

 that river, where they roost. They retire, the bulk of them I mean, 

 in vast flocks together about the beginning of October; but have 

 appeared of late years in a considerable flight in this neighbourhood, 

 for one day or two, as late as November the 3rd and 6th, after they 

 were supposed to have been gone for more than a fortnight. They 

 therefore withdraw with us the latest of any species. Unless these 

 birds are very short-lived indeed, or unless they do not return to the 

 district where they are bred, they must undergo vast devastations 

 somehow, and somewhere ; for the birds that return yearly bear no 

 manner of proportion to the birds that retire. 



House-martins are distinguished from their congeners by having 

 their legs covered with soft downy feathers down to their toes. 

 They are no songsters ; but twitter in a pretty inward soft manner 

 in their nests. 1 During the time of breeding they are often greatly 

 molested with fleas. I am, &c. 



1 They also call to their young on the wing as they approach the nests to 

 feed them. ED. 



