156 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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. Accordingly 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 the twenty-first, 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 vil- 

 lages on the Thames, darkening the face of the sky as they fre- 

 quent the aits 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 No- 

 vember the third and sixth, 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 some 

 how, 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. During the time of breeding they 

 are often greatly molested with fleas.* I am, &c. 



* In the wilder districts of Scotland, there are several localities where eave swallows build 

 abundantly, and in large communities, against the perpendicular or overhanging precipices of 

 rocks, obviously their natural site for nidification. The young differ from their parents in being 

 browner in their general tint, with less gloss on the upper feathers ; the tertiaries are tipped with 

 white ; the tail somewhat less forked ; and the under parts are brownish about the breast, as in 

 the bank-swallow. The adults moult before retiring to a warm region, but the young, do not 

 commence their change of plumage while in this 'country. The latter undergo a total moult 

 during their absence, including the primary feathers of the wings and tail, as the latter is rather 

 more forked when they return in spring, and the farmer a trifle longer. ED. 



