126 MIGRATION. 



LETTER LI. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



SELBORNE, March 15, 1773. 



DEAR SIR, By my journal for last autumn, it appears that 

 tne house-martens bred very late, and staid very late in these 

 parts ; for, on the 1st of October, I saw young martens in their 

 nests, nearly fledged ; and again, on the 21st of October, we 

 had, at the next house, a nest full of young martens just ready 

 to fly, and the old ones were hawking for insects with great 

 alertness. The next morning, the brood forsook their nest, and 

 were flying round the village. From this day, I never saw 

 one of the swallow kind till November the 3d ; when twenty, 

 or perhaps thirty, house-martens were playing all day long by 

 the side of the Hanging Wood, and over my fields. Did these 

 small weak birds, some of which were nestlings twelve days 

 ago, shift their quarters at this late season of the year, to the 

 other side of the northern tropic ? Or rather, is it not more 

 probable, that the next church, ruin, chalk-cliff, steep covert, 

 or perhaps sand-bank, lake, or pool, (as a more northern 

 naturalist would say,) may become their hybernaculum, and 

 afford them a ready and obvious retreat ? * 



attending this is, that the animal did not exhibit the least signs of 

 decomposition, nor was animation perceptible. It is, however, quite 

 evident it was alive, otherwise putridity would have ensued. The extreme 

 slow motions of the limbs of tortoises, mentioned by White, is depicted in 

 Homer's Hymn to Hermes, which has been thus translated : 



Feeding far off from man, the flowery herb 

 Slow moving with his feet. 



* The young of the swifts, before leaving their nests, are quite pre- 

 pared for an aerial excursion of almost any extent. At one time, we were 

 detached, at Holy Island, coast of Northumberland, in command of the 

 castle. A pair of martens built in a hole over the window of our apart- 

 ment. We were generally disturbed at the early dawn by these birds 

 feeding their young. We had the curiosity to take all the young, four in 

 number, out of the nest for examination. We found them in full feather, 

 although they had never yet attempted to leave their nest. After having 

 satisfied our curiosity, we were preparing to replace them in their nest, 

 when the one we had just taken m our hand for that purpose took to its 

 wings, and was immediately followed by the others. These little birds, 

 accompanied by their parents, disported in the sun for upwards of 

 two hours over the deep valley beneath our windows. They returned 

 to the nest in the afternoon, and left it early next morning, never to 

 return. The parents, on the following day, commenced anew the business 

 of incubation. - ED. 



