OF SELBORNE 67 



was much interrupted. Some did not shew themselves (at least 

 were not heard) till weeks after their usual time ; as the black- 

 cap and white-throat ; and some have not been heard yet, as the 

 grasshopper-lark and largest willow-wren. As to the fly-catcher, I 

 have not seen it ; it is indeed one of the latest, but should 

 appear about this time : and yet, amidst all this meteorous strife 

 and war of the elements, two swallows discovered themselves as 

 long ago as the eleventh of April, in frost and snow ; but they 

 withdrew quickly, and were not visible again for many days. 

 House-martins, which are always more backward than swallows, 

 were not observed till May came in. 



Among the monogamous birds several are to be found, after 

 pairing-time, single, and of each sex : but whether this state of 

 celibacy is matter of choice or necessity, is not so easily discover- 

 able. When the house-sparrows deprive my martins of their 

 nests, as soon as I cause one to be shot, the other, be it cock or 

 hen, presently procures a mate, and so for several times following. 1 



I have known a dove-house infested by a pair of white owls, 

 which made great havock among the young pigeons : one of the 

 owls was shot as soon as possible ; but the survivor readily found 

 a mate, and the mischief went on. After some time the new 

 pair were both destroyed, and the annoyance ceased. 2 



Another instance I remember of a sportsman, whose zeal for 

 the increase of his game being greater than his humanity, after 

 pairing-time he always shot the cock-bird of every couple of 

 partridges upon his grounds ; supposing that the rivalry of many 

 males interrupted the breed : he used to say, that, though he had 

 widowed the same hen several times, yet he found she was still 

 provided with a fresh paramour, that did not take her away from 

 her usual haunt. 



Again ; I knew a lover of setting, an old sportsman, who has 



1 [This paragraph deserves to be noted as a good example of White's manner, 

 at once terse and clear, of recording the results of long and accurate observation. 

 The first sentence of the next letter seems to indicate that he was at this time 

 taking special pains to be brief, from annoyance at the prolixity of French writers ; 

 and indeed he almost overdoes it. We should have been glad of more facts, both 

 as to the bachelor birds and the depredations of the sparrows. It is interesting, 

 though melancholy, to find that the persecution of the martins by house sparrows 

 has been going on for at least a hundred and thirty years.] 



2 [Bell refers to Waterton's Essays (ist series, p. 14), where this charge against 

 the barn owl is repudiated. It is of course not impossible that an individual barn 

 owl may take a fancy to young pigeons ; but the regular food is rats and mice, and 

 the species should be carefully preserved. See some valuable facts collected by Mr. 

 Norgate, in Seebohm's British Birds, vol i., p. 149.] 



