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-clifl^, 
steep covert, or perhaps sandbank, lake or pool (as a more northern 
naturalist would say), may become their hyhernaculum, and aflbrd them 
a ready and obvious retreat 1 
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. 
