HOUSE-MARTINS. 293 



three years, a flight, for one day only, has shown 

 itself in the first week in November, 



Having taken notice, in October 1780, that 

 the last flight was numerous, amounting perhaps 

 to one hundred and fifty, and that the season was 

 soft and still, I was resolved to pay uncommon 

 attention to these late birds, to find, if possible, 

 where they roosted, and to determine the precise 

 time of their retreat. The mode of life of these 

 latter hirundines is very favourable to such a 

 design, for they spend the whole day in the 

 sheltered district between me and the Hanger, 

 sailing about in a placid, easy manner, and feast- 

 ing on those insects which love to haunt a spot 

 so secure from ruffling winds. As my principal 

 object was to discover the place of their roosting, 

 I took care to wait on them before they retired 

 to rest, and was much pkased to find that, for 

 several evenings together, just at a quarter past 

 five in the afternoon, they all scudded away in 

 great haste towards the south-east, and darted 

 down among the low shrubs above the cottages 

 at the end of the hill. This spot in many respects 

 seems to be well calculated for their winter re- 

 sidence, for in many parts it is as steep as the 

 roof of any house, and therefore secure from the 

 annoyances of water ; and it is moreover clothed 

 with beechen shrubs, which, being stunted and 

 bitten by sheep, make the thickest covert ima- 

 ginable, and are so entangled as to be impervious 

 to the smallest spaniel ; besides, it is the nature 

 of underwood beech never to cast its leaf all the 

 winter, so that, with the leaves on the ground 

 and those on the twigs, no shelter can be more 

 complete. I watched them on to the thirteenth 

 and fourteenth of October, and found their evening 

 retreat was exact and uniform ; but after this they 



