of several birds ; as the sparrow, swallow, skylark. 

 When it happens to be silent in the night, by throw- 

 ing a stone or clod into the bushes where it sits 

 you immediately set it a singing; or in other words, 

 though it slumbers sometimes, yet as soon as it is 

 awakened it reassumes its song. 



Selborne, Nov. 9, 1773. 



LETTER LV. 



To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. 



In obedience to your injunctions I sit down to 

 give you some account of the house-martin or mart- 

 let ; * and, if my monography of this little domestic 

 and familiar bird should happen to meet with your 

 approbation, I may probably soon extend my inqui- 

 ries to the rest of the British hirundines — the swallow, 

 the swift, and the bank-martin. 



A few house-martins begin to appear about the 

 i6th of April ; usually some few days later than the 

 swallow. For some time after they appear, the Jiiriin- 

 dines in general pay no attention to the business of 

 nidification, but play and sport about, either to recruit 

 from the fatigue of their journey, if they do migrate 

 at all, or else that their blood may recover its true 

 tone and texture after it has been so long benumbed 

 by the severities of winter. About the middle of 



* Hiriindo urbica, Linnaeus. 

 194 



