236 The Natural History of Selborne 



commons where there are large lakes ; while the other species, 

 especially the swallow and house-martin, are remarkably gentle and 

 domesticated, and never seem to think themselves safe but under 

 the protection of man. 1 



There are in this parish, in the sand-pits and banks of the lakes 

 of Woolmer forest, several colonies of these birds, and yet they 

 are never seen in the village ; nor do they at all frequent the 

 cottages that are scattered about in that wild district. The only 

 instance I ever remember where this species haunts any building 

 is at the town of Bishop's Waltham, in this county, where many 

 sand-martins nestle and breed in the scaffold-holes of the back- 

 wall of William of Wykeham's stables ; but then this wall stands 

 in a very sequestered and retired enclosure, and faces upon a large 

 and beautiful lake. And indeed this species seems so to delight in 

 large waters, that no instance occurs of their abounding but near 

 vast pools or rivers; 2 and in particular it has been remarked that 

 they swarm in the banks of the Thames in some places below 

 London bridge. 



It is curious to observe with what different degrees of architec- 

 tonic skill Providence has endowed birds of the same genus, and 

 so nearly correspondent in their general mode of life ! for while the 

 swallow and the house-martin discover the greatest address in 

 raising and securely fixing crusts or shells of loam as cunabula for 

 their young, the bank-martin terebrates a round and regular hole 

 in the sand or earth, which is serpentine, horizontal, and about two 

 feet deep. At the inner end of this burrow does this bird 

 deposit, in a good degree of safety, her rude nest, consisting of fine 



1 This was doubtless the case in White's time, when the open heaths and 

 uplands of England were but little inhabited ; but at the present day, sand-martins 

 are very familiar birds in many parts of southern Britain. It must be borne in 

 mind that the immense number of railway-cuttings and of exposed sand-banks on 

 the better-graded roads must have afforded an immensely larger opening for sand- 

 martin enterprise. The species is therefore in all probability much more 

 numerous in individuals now than formerly, and may be observed in many quite 

 populous places. Immense numbers of these pretty birds, for example, build at pre- 

 sent in the railway-cutting near Gomshall Station on the South Eastern line. ED. 

 - I do not think this is now correct. Sand-martins abound in many dry districts 

 tolerably remote from lakes or rivers. ED. 



