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XXIII. Of the Houfe-Swallow, Swift, Sand-Martin-. 
By the Rev, Gilbert White, In l^hree Betters to the Hon, 
■ Daines Barrington, F, R, S, 
LETTER I. 
OF THE HOUSE-SWALLOW. 
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Jan. 29, 1775. 
Redde, Mar. houfe-fw allow, or chimiiey-fwal- 
low, is undoubtedly the firft comer of 
all the Brithli hirundines ; and appears in general on or 
about the 1 3th of April, as I have remarked from many 
years obfervation. Not but now and then a ftraggler is 
feert much earlier ; and in particular, when I was a boy, 
I obferved a fwallow, for a whole day together, on a 
funny warm Shrove-tuefday, which day could not fall 
out later than the middle of March, and often happens 
early in February. It is worth remarking, that thefe 
birds are feen firft about lakes and mill-ponds : and it is 
alfo very particular, that if thefe early vifitors happen to 
find froft and fnow, as was the cafe in the two dreadful 
fprings of 1770 and 1771, they immediately withdraw 
for a time. A circumftance this much more in favour 
* See an account of the Houfe-Martin by the fame gentleman, in Phil.. 
Tranf, voL LXIV.- p, 196. 
of 
