NATURAL HISTORY OP SELBORNE. 179 



Summer birds are, this cold and backward spring, unusually late : I 

 have seen but one swallow yet. This conformity with the weather 

 convinces me more and more that they sleep in the winter. 



LETTER LI. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Sept. 3rd, 1781. 



I HAVE now read your miscellanies through with much care and 

 satisfaction ; and am to return you my best thanks for the honourable 

 mention made in them of me as a naturalist, which I wish I may 

 deserve. 



In some former letters I expressed my suspicions that many of the 

 house-martins do not depart in the winter far from this village. I 

 therefore determined to make some search about the south-east end of 

 the hill, where I imagined they might slumber out the uncomfortable 

 months of winter. But supposing that the examination would be 

 made to the best advantage in the spring, and observing that no 

 martins had appeared by the llth of April last ; on that day I employed 

 some men to explore the shrubs and cavities of the suspected spot. 

 The persons took pains, but without any success ; however, a remarkable 

 incident occurred in the midst of our pursuit : while the labourers were 

 at work a house-martin, the first that had been seen this year, came 

 down the village in the sight of several people, and went at once into a 

 nest, where it stayed a short time, and then flew over the houses ; for 

 some days after no martins were observed, not till the 16th of April, 

 and then only a pair. Martins in general were remarkably late this 

 year. 



LETTEK LIT. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBOBNE > Sept. 9th, 1781. 



I HAVE just met with a circumstance respecting swifts, which 

 furnishes an exception to the whole tenor of my observations ever since 

 I have bestowed any attention on that species of hirundines. Our 

 swifts, in general, withdrew this year about the first day of August, all 

 save one pair, which in two or three days was reduced to a single bird. 

 The perseverance of this individual made me suspect that the strongest 



Mrs. White, and a woodcut is given of it. Professor Bell, whose authority regard- 

 ing the testudinata is the best in this country, if not elsewhere, refers it to the 

 teftudo marginata, a species not uncommon in Greece and the Mediterranean ; but 

 Mr. Bennet, upon a careful examination and comparison of the shell of the 

 Grecian species, thinks that he recognised distinctions that would entitle it to a 

 separate name, and he has applied to it that of its owner. We shall rejoice if this 

 can bo established, which we have not at present materials to prove or disprove, 

 and would therefore leave it to Professor BelL The vignette is from the figure 

 of the T. mwrginata in PROF. BELL'S Testvdinata. 



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