The natural history of Selborne . eared, only a few swifts stayed late, till the 22d of August;a rare instance! for they usually withdraw withinthe first week.* On September the 24th, three or four ringouselsappeared in my fields for the first time this punctual are these visiters in their autumnaland spring migrations! LETTER XXXVIII. Selborne, March 15, 1773,Dear Sir,—By my journal for last autumn itappears that the House-martins stayed very latein these parts, for on the 1st of October I saw youngmartins in their nests nearly fledged ; and again, onthe 21st of Oct
The natural history of Selborne . eared, only a few swifts stayed late, till the 22d of August;a rare instance! for they usually withdraw withinthe first week.* On September the 24th, three or four ringouselsappeared in my fields for the first time this punctual are these visiters in their autumnaland spring migrations! LETTER XXXVIII. Selborne, March 15, 1773,Dear Sir,—By my journal for last autumn itappears that the House-martins stayed very latein these parts, for on the 1st of October I saw youngmartins in their nests nearly fledged ; and again, onthe 21st of October, we had, at the next house, a ? See Letter XLVIIL, Part II. 120 NATURAL HISTORY nest full of young martins just ready to fly, and theold ones were hawking for insects with great alert,ness. The next morning the brood forsook theirnest and were flying round the village. From thisday I never saw one of the swallow kind till No-vember the 3d, when twenty, or perhaps thirty,house-martins were playing all day long by the side. of the Hanging Wood and over my fields. Didthese small weak birds, some of which were nest-ling twelve days ago, shift their quarters at thislate season of the year to the other side of the north-ern tropic ? Or, rather, is it not more probable thatthe next church, ruin, chalk-cliff, steep covert, orperhaps sandbank, lake, or pool (as a more north-ern naturalist would say), may become their hyher-naculunif and afford them a ready and obvious re-treat 1 We are beginning to expect our vernal migra-lions of ringousels every week. Persons worthyof credit assure me that ringousels were seen atChristmas, 1770, in the forest of Bere, on the south-ern verge of this county. Hence we may con OF SELBORNE. 121 elude that llieir migrations are only internal, andnot extended to the Continent southward, if they doat first come at all from the northern parts ot thisisland only, and not from the north of from whence they vviil, it is plain, from thefearless
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