SELBORNE, _Sept._ 3_rd_, 1781.
I have now read your miscellanies through with much care and
satisfaction; and am to return you my best thanks for the honourable
mention made in them of me as a naturalist, which I wish I may deserve.
In some former letters I expressed my suspicions that many of the house-
martins do not depart in the winter far from this village. I therefore
determined to make some search about the south-east end of the hill,
where I imagined they might slumber out the uncomfortable months of
winter. But supposing that the examination would be made to the best
advantage in the spring, and observing that no martins had appeared by
the 11th April last; on that day I employed some men to explore the
shrubs and cavities of the suspected spot. The persons took pains, but
without any success; however, a remarkable incident occurred in the midst
of our pursuit: while the labourers were at work, a house-martin, the
first that had been seen this year, came down the village in the sight of
several people, and went at once into a nest, where it stayed a short
time, and then flew over the houses; for some days after no martins were
observed, not till the 16th April, and then only a pair. Martins in
general were remarkably late this year.