OF SELBORNE. 279 



LETTER LI. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, Sept. 3, 1781. 



HAVE now read your Miscellanies through 

 with much care and satisfaction ; and am to 

 return you my best thanks for the honour- 

 able 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. 



