This species feeds much on little coleopiera, as 

 well as on gnats and flies ; and often settles on dug 

 ground, or paths, for gravels to grind and digest its 

 food. Before they depart, for some weeks they for- 

 sake houses and chimneys to a bird, and roost in 

 trees ; and usually withdraw about the beginning of 

 October ; though some few stragglers may appear 

 at times till the first week in November. 



[September 13, 1791. The congregating flocks of 

 hirundines on the church and tower are very beau- 

 tiful and amusing ! When they fly off together from 

 the roof, on any alarm, they quite swarm in the air. 

 But they soon settle in heaps, and preening their 

 feathers, and lifting up their wings to admit the sun, 

 seem highly to enjoy the warm situation. Thus 

 they spend the heat of the day, preparing for their 

 emigration, and, as it were, consulting when and 

 where they are to go. The flight about the church 

 seems to consist chiefly of house-martins, about 400 

 in number ; but there are other places of rendezvous 

 about the village frequented at the same time.* 



It is remarkable, that though most of them sit on 



* Of their migration the proofs are such as will scarcely admit of a 

 doubt. Sir Charles Wager and Captain Wright saw vast flocks of them 

 at sea, when on their passage from one country to another. Our author, 

 Mr. White, saw M'hat he deemed the actual migration of these birds 

 which he has described at p. 6g, and again in the above extract ; and I 

 once observed a large flock of house-martins myself on the roof of the 

 church here at Catsfield, which acted exactly in the manner here described 

 by Mr. White, sometimes preening their feathers and spreading their 



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