OF SELBORNE. 267 



grain, considering the great improvements of modern 

 husbandry. Such a run of wet seasons a century or 

 two ago, would, I am persuaded, have occasioned a 

 famine. Therefore pamphlets and newspaper letters, 

 that talk of combinations, tend to inflame and mislead ; 

 since we must not expect plenty till Providence sends 

 us more favourable seasons. 



The wheat of last year, all round this district, and in 

 the county of Rutland, and elsewhere, yields remark- 

 ably bad : and our wheat on the ground, by the conti- 

 nual late sudden vicissitudes from fierce frost to pouring 

 rains, looks poorly ; and the turnips rot very fast. 



I am, &c. 



LETTER XX. 



TO THE SAME. 



DEAR SIR, SELBORNE, Feb. 26, 1774. 



THE sand martin, or bank martin, is by much the least 

 of any of the British Hirundines; and, as far as we have 

 ever seen, the smallest known Hirundo: though Bris- 

 son asserts that there is one much smaller, and that is 

 the Hirundo esculenta. 



But it is much to be regretted that it is scarce pos- 

 sible for any observer to be so full and exact as he 

 could wish in reciting the circumstances attending the 

 life and conversation of this little bird, since it is f era 

 naturd, at least in this part of the kingdom, disclaiming 

 all domestic attachments, and haunting wild heaths 

 and 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. 



