222 The Natural History 



LETTER LI 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



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-miartins 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 ob- 

 served, not till the i6th of April, and then only a pair. 

 Martins in general were remarkably late this year. 



LETTER LII 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selborne, Sept. 9, 1781. 



I HAVE just met with a circumstance respecting swifts, 

 which furnishes an exception to the whole tenor of my 



