THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 153 
3 
our wheat on the ground, by the continual late sudden vicissi- 
tudes from fierce frost to pouring rains, looks poorly ; and the 
turnips rot very fast. 
LETTER XX. 
SELBORNE, fed. 26th, 1774. 
The sand-martin, or bank-martin, is by much the least of any 
of the British Hirundines ; and, as far as we have ever seen, 
the smallest known //rundo ; though Brisson asserts that there 
is one much smaller, and that is the Wirundo esculenta. 
But it is much to be regretted that it is scarce possible for 
any observer to be so full and exact as he could wish in recit- 
_ing the circumstances attending the life and conversation of this 
little bird, since it is /eva naturd, at least in this part of the 
kingdom, disclaiming all domestic attachments, and haunting 
wild heaths and commons where there are large lakes; while 
_ the other species, especially the swallow and house-martin, are 
remarkably gentle and domesticated, and never seem to think 
themselves safe but under the protection of man. 
Here are in this parish, in the sand-pits and banks of the 
lakes of Wolmer Forest, several colonies of these birds ; and yet 
they are never seen in the village; nor do they at all frequent 
the cottages that are scattered about in that wild district. ‘The 
only instance I ever remember where this species haunts any 
building is at the town of Bishop’s Waltham, in this county, 
where many sand-martins nestle and breed in the scaffold-holes 
of the back wall of William of Wykeham’s stables; but then 
_ this wall stands in a very sequestered and retiredsnclosure, and 
_ faces upon a large and beautiful lake. And, indeed, this species 
seems so to delight in large waters that no instance occurs of 
their abounding but near vast pools or rivers ; and in particular 
