252 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER LI. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Sept. yd, 1781. 



I HAVE now read your miscellanies through with much care and 

 satisfaction ; and am to return you my best thanks for the honour- 

 able mention made in them of me as a naturalist, which I wish I 

 may deserve. 



In some former letters I expressed my suspicions that many of 

 the house-martins do not depart in the winter far from this village. 

 I therefore determined to make some search about the south-east 

 end of the hill, where I imagined they might slumber out the un- 

 comfortable months of winter. But supposing that the examination 

 would be made to the best advantage in the spring, and observing, 

 that no martins had appeared by the nth of April last ; on that 

 day I employed some men to explore the shrubs and cavities of the 

 suspected spot. The persons took pains, but without any success ; 

 however, a remarkable incident occurred in the midst of our 

 pursuit : while the labourers were at work, a house-martin, the 

 first that had been seen this year, came down the village in the 

 sight of several people, and went at once into a nest, where it 

 stayed a short time, and then flew over the houses ; for some days 

 after no martins were observed, not till the i6th of April, and then 

 only a pair. Martins in general were remarkably late this year. 



