236 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



so secure from ruffling winds. As my principal object was to 

 discover the place of their roosting, I took care to wait on them 

 before they retired to rest, and was much pleased to find that, 

 for several evenings together, just at a quarter past five in the 

 afternoon, they all scudded away in great haste towards the 

 south-east, and darted down among the low shrubs above the 

 cottages at the end of the hill. This spot in many respects seems 

 to be well calculated for their winter residence: for in many 

 parts it is as steep as the roof of any house, and therefore secure 

 from the annoyances of water ; and it is moreover clothed with 

 beechen shrubs, which, being stunted and bitten by sheep, make 

 the thickest covert imaginable ; and are so entangled as to be 

 impervious to the smallest spaniel : besides, it is the nature of 

 underwood beech never to cast its leaf all the winter ; so that, 

 with the leaves on the ground and those on the twigs, no shelter 

 can be more complete. I watched them on to the thirteenth 

 and fourteenth of October, and found their evening retreat was 

 exact and uniform ; but after this they made no regular appear- 

 ance. Now and then a straggler was seen ; and, on the twenty- 

 second of October, I observed two in the morning over the 

 village, and with them my remarks for the season ended. 



From all these circumstances put together, it is more than 

 probable that this lingering flight, at so late a season of the year, 

 never departed from the island. Had they indulged me that 

 autumn with a November visit, as I much desired, I presume 

 that, with proper assistants, I should have settled the matter past 

 all doubt; but though the third of November was a sweet day, 

 and in appearance exactly suited to my wishes, yet not a martin 

 was to be seen ; and so I was forced^ reluctantly, to give up the 

 pursuit. 



I have only to add that were the bushes, which cover some 

 acres, and are not my own property, to be grubbed and carefully 

 examined, probably those late broods, and perhaps the whole 

 aggregate body of the house-martins of this district, might be 

 found there, in different secret dormitories ; and that, so far from 

 withdrawing into warmer climes, it would appear that they never 

 depart three hundred yards from the village.* 



* The following account, by Mr. Audubon, of the manner in which an American species of 

 swallow passes the winter, will be read with much interest by those who are at all curious on the 

 subject : 



" Being extremely desirous," he observes, " of settling the long agitated question respecting 

 the migration or torpidity of swallows, I embraced every opportunity of examining their habits, 



