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XXVII. Account of the H ouf e-mar tin , or 
Martlet. In a Letter from the Rev. 
Gilbert White to the Hon . Daines Bar- 
rington. 
DEAR SIR, 
Redde, Feb. i°>~W~ N obedience to your injunctions, I fir 
1774 JL down t0 give you tome account of the 
house-martin, or martlet: and if my mono- 
graphy, of this little domefiic and familiar bird, fhould 
happen to meet with your approbation, I may pro- 
bably foon extend my enquiries to the reft of the 
Britifh birun dines, the fwaliow, the fvvift, and the 
bank-martin. 
A few houfe-martins begin to appear about the- 
l6th of April ; ufually fome few days later than the - 
fwaliow. For fome time alter they appear, the. 
hirundines in general pjy no attention to the bufi- 
nefts of nidification ; but play and fport about,, 
either to recruit from the fatigue of their journey, . 
if they do migrate at all 5 or elfe, that their blood 
may recover its true tone and texture, after it has - 
been fo long benumbed by the feverities of winter. - 
About the middle of May, if the weather be fine, 
the martin begins to think, in earned:, of providing 
a manfion for its family. The cruft, or fhell of , 
this neft, feems to be formed of fuch dirt, as comes 
moll readily to hand, and is tempered and wrought 
together 
