OX SELBORNE. 181 



LETTER XVI. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBOBNE, Nov. 20, 1773. 



obedience to your injunctions I sit down to 

 give you some account of the house martin 

 or martlet; and, if my monography of this 

 little domestic and familiar bird should happen 

 to meet with your approbation, I may pro- 

 bably soon extend my inquiries to the rest of the British 

 Hirundines the swallow, the swift, and the bank martin. 



A few house martins begin to appear about the 16th of 

 April ; usually some few days later than the swallow. For 

 some time after they appear, the Hirundines 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 May, if the weather be fine, the martin begins to 

 think in earnest of providing a mansion for its family. The 

 crust or shell of this nest seems to be formed of such dirt or 

 loam as comes most readily to hand, and is tempered and 

 wrought together with little bits of broken straws to render 

 it tough and tenacious. As this bird often builds against 

 a perpendicular wall without any projecting ledge under, it 

 requires its utmost efforts to get the first foundation firmly 

 fixed, so that it may safely carry the superstructure. On 

 this occasion the bird not only clings with its claws, but 

 partly supports itself by strongly inclining its tail against 

 the wall, making that a fulcrum ; and thus steadied, it 

 works and plasters the materials into the face of the brick 

 or stone. But then, that this work may not, while it is 

 soft and green, pull itself down by its own weight, the pro- 



