(dragon-flies) aimoft as long as themfelves. In the laft week in
June we have feen a row of thefe fitting on a rail near a great pool
as fercbers; and fo young and hclplefs, as eafily to be taken by
hand : but whether the dams ever feed them on the wing, as
fwallows arrd houfe-martins do, we have never yet been able to
determine; nor do we know whether 'they purfue and attack birds
of prey.
When they happen to breed near hedges and enclolures, they
are difpoffeffed of their breeding holes by the houfe-fparrow, which
is on the fame account a fell adversary to houfe-martins.
Thefe hirundines are no fongfters, but rather mute, making only
a little harlh noife when a peffon approaches their nefts. They
feem not to be of a fociable turn, never with us congregating with
their congeners in the autumn. Undoubtedly they breed a fecund
time, like the houfe-martm and fwallow; and withdraw about
Michaelmas.
Though in fome particular diftrids they may happen to abound,
yet in the whole, in the fouth of England at leaft, is this much the
fared: fpecies. For there are few towns or large villages but what
abound with houfe-martins 5 few churches, towers, or fleeples, but
what are haunted by fome fwifts; fcarce a hamlet or Angle cottage-
chimney that has not it s fwallow; while the hank-martins, fcattered
here and there, live a fequeftered life among fome abrupt fand-hills,
and in the banks of fome few rivers.
Thefe birds have a peculiar manner of flying ,• flitting about
with odd jerks, and vacillations, not unlike the motions of a
butterfly. Doubtlefs the flight of all hlmndir&s is influenced by,
and adapted to, tire peculiar fort of iftfe&s which fuffiifh their food.
Hence it would be worth inquiry to examine what particular genus
of infefts affords the principal food of each refpedrive fpecies of
fwallow. Notwithftanding
O F - " S E L B O R N E . 179
Notwithftanding. what has been advanced above, fome few fand-
martins, I fee, haunt the fkirts of London, frequenting the dirty
pools in Saint George's-Fields, and about White-Chapel. The quef-
tion is where thefe build, fince there are no banks or bold fhores in
that neighbourhood-: perhaps they neftle in the fcaffold holes of
fome- old or new deferred building. They dip and walh as they
fly iometimes, like the houfe-martin and fwallow.
Sand-martins differ from their congeners in the diminutivenefs
of their fize, and in their colour, which is what is ufually called a
moufe-colour. Ness Valencia, in Spain, theyare taken, (aysWiUughby,
and Ibid in the markets for the table; and are called by the
country people, probably from their defultory jerking manner
o f flight, Papilion de Montagna.
L E T T E R XXI.
TO- TH E S AM E .
P E A R SIR, Seeborne, Sept, 48, 1774.
A s thejwi/i or black-martin', is the largeft of the Britijh hirundines,
fo is it undoubtedly the lateft comer. For I remember but one
inftanee of it’s appearing befirae- the laft week in Jpril: and in fome
of our late frofty, harflr fprings, it has not been, feen till the begin-
ing- of May. This fpecies ufually arrives, in pairs.
A a 2 The