184 NATURAL HISTOEY OF SELBOUNE. 
whicli love to haunt a spot so secure from ruffling winds. As my prin- 
cipal object was to discover the place of their roosting, I took care 
to wait on them before they retired to rest, and was much pleased to 
find that for several evenings together, just at a quarter-past five in the 
afternoon, they all scudded away in great haste towards the south- 
east, and darted down among the low shrubs above the cottages at the 
end of the hill. This spot in many respects seemed to be well calculated 
for their winter residence ; for in many parts it is as steep as the roof 
of any house, and therefore 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 ; and 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 the 
thirteenth and fourteenth of October, 
and found their evening retreat was 
exact and uniform; but after this they 
made no regular appearance. Kow and 
then a straggler was seen ; and on the 
twenty-second of October, I observed two 
in the morning over the village, and with 
them my remarks for the season ended. 
From all these circumstances put to- 
gether, 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 presume 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 difierent 
secret dormitories; and that, so far from withdrawing into warmer 
climes, it would appear that they never depart three hundred yards 
from the village. ^ 
* The examination would have been fmitless. See note to Letter XXXVL 
