NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 73 



the house-sparrow, which is on the same account a fell 

 adversary to house-martins. 



These hirundines are no songsters, but rather mute, 

 making only a little harsh noise when a person ap- 

 proaches their nests. They seem not to be of a sociable 

 turn, never with us congregating with their congeners 

 in the autumn. Undoubtedly, they breed a second time, 

 like the house-martin and swallow, and withdraw about 

 Michaelmas. 



Though in some particular districts they may happen 

 to abound, yet in the whole, in the south of England at 

 least, is this much the rarest species. For there are 

 few towns or large villages but what abound with house- 

 martins ; few churches, towers, or steeples, but what are 

 haunted by some swifts ; scarce a hamlet or single 

 cottage - chimney that has not it's swallow ; while the 

 bank-martins, scattered here and there, live a sequestered 

 life among some abrupt sand-hills, and in the banks of 

 some few rivers. 



These birds ha,ve a peculiar manner of flying ; flitting 

 about with odd jerks, and vacillations, not unlike the motions 

 of a butterfly. Doubtless the flight of all hirundines 

 is influenced by, and adapted to, the peculiar sort of 

 insects which furnish their food. Hence it would be 

 worth inquiry to examine what particular genus of insects 

 affords the principal food of each respective species of 

 swallow. 



Notwithstanding what has been advanced above, some 

 few sand-martins, I see, haunt the skirts of London, 

 frequenting the dirty pools in Saint George's- Fields, and 

 about Whitechapel. The question is where these build, 

 since there are no banks or bold shores in that neigh- 

 bourhood ; perhaps they nestle in the scaffold-holes of 

 some old or new deserted building. They dip and 

 wash as they fly sometimes, like the house-martin and 

 swallow. 



Sand-martins differ from their congeners in the dimi- 

 nutiveness of their size, and in their colour, which is 



VOL. II. K 



