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6th, 1 — & on Octob r - 22. I discovered here at Selborne three 
young martins in a nest, which the dams fed & attended with 
great affection on to HovenT 1st, a severe frosty day; when they 
disappeared; & one was found dead in a neighbour’s garden. 
The middle of last Septem r - was a sweet season! during this lovely 
weather the congregating flocks of house martins on the Church 
& tower were very beautiful & amusing! When they flew off 
all together from the roof, on any alarm, they quite swarmed in the 
air. But they soon settled again in heaps on the shingles; where 
preening their feathers, & lifting up their wings to admit the rays 
of the sun, they seemed highly to enjoy the warm situation. Thus 
did they spend the heat of the day, preparing for their Migration, 
& as it were consulting when & where they are to go ! The flight 
about the church consisted chiefly of h. martins, about 400 in 
number: but there were other places of rendezvous about the 
village, frequented at the same time. The swallows seem to 
delight more in holding their assemblies on trees. Such sights as 
these fill me with enthusiasm ! & make me cry out involuntarily, 
“ Amusive birds ! say where your hid retreat, 
When the frost rages, & the tempests beat !” 2 
We have very great oaks here also on absolute sand. For over 
Wolmer forest, at Bramshot place where I visit, I measur’d last 
summer three great hollow oaks, which made a very grotesque 
appearance at. the entrance of the avenue, & found the largest 21 
feet in girth at five feet from the ground. The largest Sycamore 
in my friend’s court measures 13 feet. His edible chestnuts grow 
amazingly, hut make (for some have been felled) vile shaky, 
cupshaky timber. 3 I think the oak on sands is shaky, as it is 
also on our rocks, as I know by sad experience the last time I 
1 The length of stay which the Swifts make with us in Autumn must in 
some measure depend upon the locality which they frequent during the 
Summer, for in the parish of Harting, Sussex, (not more than a dozen miles 
from Selborne,) I have remarked during the last ten years that these birds 
invariably remain until the end of the first week in September, or at least a 
month after the average date of their departure as observed by White at 
Selborne. See Letter xxxvii. to Pennant. — J E. II. 
* These original lines occur in ‘‘ The Naturalist’s Summer Evening Walk, 
which White dedicated to Pennant. — J. E. II. 
3 See note 8, p. 142, to the second letter of the present series.— J. E. II. 
