LETTER LI 



TO THE SAME 



SELBORNE, Sept. 3, 1781. 



I HAVE now read your miscellanies through with much 

 care and satisfaction ; and am to return you my best thanks 

 for the honourable 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 uncomfortable 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. 



