170 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



bank martin terebrates a round and regular hole in the 

 sand or earth, which is serpentine, horizontal, and about 

 two feet deep. At the inner end of this burrow does this 

 bird deposit, in a good degree of safety, her rude nest, 

 consisting of fine grasses and feathers, usually goose-feathers, 

 very inartificially laid together. 



Perseverance will accomplish anything ; though at first 

 one would be disinclined to believe that this weak bird, 

 with her soft and tender bill and claws, should ever be able 

 to bore the stubborn sand-bank without entirely disabling 

 herself; yet with these feeble instruments I have seen a 

 pair of them make great dispatch, and could remark how 

 much they had scooped that day by the fresh sand which 

 ran down the bank, and was of a dijQferent colour from that 

 which lay loose and bleached in the sun. 



In what space of time these little artists are able to mine 

 and finish these cavities I have not been able to discover, 

 for reasons given above ; but it would be a matter worthy 

 of observation, where it falls in the way of any naturalist 

 to make his remarks. This I have often taken notice of, 

 that several holes of different depths are left unfinished at 

 the end of summer. To imagine that these beginnings were 

 intentionally made in order to be in the greater forwardness 

 for next spring is allowing perhaps too much foresight and 

 rerum prudentia to a simple bird. May not the cause of 

 these latebrce being left unfinished arise from their meeting 

 in those places with strata too harsh, hard, and solid for 

 their purpose, which they relinquish, and go to a fresh spot 

 that works more freely 1 Or may they not in other places 

 fall in with a soil as much too loose and mouldering, 

 liable to flounder, and threatening to overwhelm them and 

 their labours ? 



One thing is remarkable — that, after some years, the old 



