OF SELBORNE. 115 



stems of the crown-imperials, and, putting 

 its head into the bells of those flowers, sips 

 the liquor which stands in the nectarium of 

 each petal. Sometimes it feeds on the 

 ground like the hedge-sparrow , by hopping 

 about on the grass-plots and mown walks. 

 One of my neighbours, an intelligent and 

 observing man, informs me that, in the 

 beginning of May, and about ten minutes 

 before eight o'clock in the evening, he dis- 

 covered a great cluster of house-.^wallows, 

 thirty at least he supposes, perching on a 

 willow that hung over the verge of James 

 Knighfs upper pond. His attention was 

 first drawn by the twittering of these birds, 

 which sat motionless in a row on the 

 bough, with their heads all one way, and, 

 by their weight, pressing down the twig 

 so that it nearly touched the water. In 

 this situation he watched them till he could 

 see no longer. Repeated accounts of this 

 sort. Spring and fall, induce us greatly to 

 suspect that house-swallows have some 

 strong attachment to water, independent 

 of the matter of food ; and, though they 

 I 2 



