of Selborne 151 



springs have never obtained more since the memory of 

 man than during that period ; nor has there been known 

 a greater scarcity of all sorts of 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 in- 

 flame 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 remarkably 

 bad : and our wheat on the ground, by the continual late 

 sudden vicissitudes from fierce frost to pouring rains, 

 looks poorly ; and the turnips rot very fast. 



LETTER XX 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES HARRINGTON 



Selhome, Feb. 26, 1774. 



Dear Sir, 

 The sand-martin, or bank-martin, is by much the least 

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

 ever seen, the smallest known hirundo ; though Brisson 

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

 hiruftdo esai/e?iia. 



But it is much to be regretted that it is scarce possible 

 for any observer to be so full and exact as he could wish 

 in reciting the circumstances attending the life and con- 

 versation of this little bird, since it is fefa na/urd, at 

 least in this part of the kingdom, disclaiming all domestic 

 attachments, and haunting wild heaths and conmions 

 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 them- 

 selves safe but under the protection of man. 



Here are in this parish, in the sand-pits and banks of 

 the lakes of Wolmer-forest, several colonies of these birds ; 



