XCIX.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
265 
secure from the annoyances of water; and it is moreover clothed 
with beechen shrubs, which, being stunted and bitten by sheep, 
make the thickest covert imaginable ; they are so entangled as 
to be impervious to the smallest spaniel : besides, it is the nature 
of underwood beech never to cast its leaf all the winter ; so 
that, with the leaves on the ground and those on the twigs, no 
shelter can be more complete. I watched them on to the 
13th and 14th of October, and found their evening retreat 
was exact and uniform ; but after this they made no regular 
appearance. Now and then a straggler was seen ; and on the 
22nd of October, in the morning, I observed two over the village, 
and with them my remarks for the season ended. 
From all these circumstances put together, it is more than 
probable that this lingering flight, at so late a season of the 
year, never departed from the island. Had they indulged me 
that autumn with a November visit, as I much desired, I pre- 
sume that, with proper assistants, I should have settled the 
matter past all doubt ; but though the 3rd of November was a 
sweet day, and in appearance exactly suited to my wishes, yet 
not a martin was to be seen ; and so I was forced reluctantly to 
give up the pursuit. 
I have only to add, that, were the bushes, which cover some 
acres, and are not my own property, to be grubbed and carefully 
examined, probably those late broods, and perhaps the whole 
aggregate body of the house-martins of this district, might be 
found there, in different secret dormitories ; and that, so far from 
withdrawing into warmer climes, it would appear that they 
never depart three hundred yards from the village. 
October 10, 1781. 
