NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 77 



possible, the various evolutions and quick turns of the swallow genus. 

 But the circumstance that pleased me most was, that I saw it distinctly, 

 more than once, put out its short leg while on the wing, and, by a bend 

 of the head, deliver somewhat into its mouth. If it takes any part of 

 its prey with its foot, as I have now the greatest reason to suppose it 

 does these chafers, I no longer wonder at the use of its middle toe, 

 which is curiously furnished with a serrated claw. 



Swallows and martins, the bulk of them I mean have forsaken us 

 sooner this year than usual ; for on September the twenty-second, they 

 rendezvoused in a neighbour's walnut-tree, where it seemed probable 

 they had taken up their lodging for the night. At the dawn of the day, 

 which was foggy, they arose all together in infinite numbers, occasioning 

 such a rushing from the strokes of their wings against the hazy air, as 

 might be heard to a considerable distance : since that no flock has 

 appeared, only a few stragglers. 



Some swifts staid late, till the twenty-second of August a rare 

 instance ! for they usually withdraw within the first week.* 



On September the twenty-fourth three or four ring-ousels appeared 

 in my fields for the first time this season; how punctual are these 

 visitors in their autumnal and spring migrations ! 



LETTEE XXXVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, March 15th, 1773. 



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

 martins bred very late, and stayed very late in these parts ; for, on the 

 first of October, I saw young martins in their nest nearly fledged ; and 

 again on the twenty-first of October, we had at the next house a nest 

 full of young martins 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 third ; when twenty, or 

 perhaps thirty, house-martins were playing all day long by the side of 

 the hanging wood, and over my field. Did these small weak birds, 

 some of which were nestling 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 sandbank, lake or pool (as a more northern 

 naturalist would say), may become their hybernaculum, and afford them 

 a ready and obvious retreat ] 



We now begin to expect our vernal migration of ring-ousels every 

 week. Persons worthy of credit assure me that ring-ousels were seen 

 at Christmas 1770 in the forest of Bere, on the southern verge of this 

 county. Hence we may conclude that their migrations are only 

 internal, and not extended to the continent southward, if they do at 



* See Letter LIII. to Mr. Barrington. 



