One thing is remarkable, that, after some years, the old holes are forsaken, and new ones bored; perhaps because the old habitations grow foul and fetid from long use, or because they may so abound with fleas as to become untenantable. This species of swallow, moreover, is strangely annoyed with fleas; and we have seen fleas, bed-fleas, (pulex_irritans,*) swarming at the mouths of these holes like bees on the stools of their hives.

The following circumstance should by no means be omitted, -that these birds do not make use of their caverns by way of hybernacula, as might be expected; since banks so perforated have been dug out with care in the winter, when nothing was found but empty nests.

The sand-marten arrives much about the same time with the swallow, and lays, as she does, from four to six white eggs. But, as this species is cryptogame, carrying on the business of nidification, incubation, and the support of its young, in the dark, it would not be easy to ascertain the time of breeding, were it not for the coming forth of the broods, which appear much about the time, or rather somewhat earlier, than those of the swallow. The nestlings are supported, in common, like those of their congeners, with gnats and other small insects, and sometimes they are fed with libellulæ, (dragon-flies,) almost as long as themselves. In the last week in June, we have seen a row of these sitting on a rail, near a great pool, as perchers, and so young and helpless, as easily to be taken by hand; but whether the dams ever feed them on the wing, as swallows and house-martens do, we have never yet been able to determine; nor do we know whether they pursue and attack birds of prey.

When they happen to breed near hedges and enclosures, they are dispossessed of their breeding holes by the housesparrow, which is, on the same account, a fell adversary to house-martens.

These hirundines are no songsters, but rather mute, making only a little harsh noise when a person approaches their nests. They seem not to be of a sociable turn, never with us congregating with their congeners in the autumn. Undoubtedly they breed a second time, like the house-marten and swallow, and withdraw about Michaelmas.

Though, in some particular districts, they may happen to

* Our author is wrong in supposing these insects to be the common bed-flea; it is the swallow-flea, (pulex hirundinis of Stephens,) by which they are infested.-ED.

abound, yet, on the whole, in the south of England at least, is this much the rarest species; for there are few towns or large villages but what abound with house-martens; few churches, towers, or steeples, but what are haunted by some swifts; scarce a hamlet or single cottage chimney that has not its swallow; while the bank-martens, scattered here and there live a sequestered life among some abrupt sand hills, and in the banks of some few rivers. *

These birds have a peculiar manner of flying, flitting about with odd jerks and vacillations, not unlike the motions of a butterfly. Doubtless the flight of all hirundines is influenced by, and adapted to, the peculiar sort of insects which furnish their food. Hence it would be worth inquiry to examine what particular genus of insects affords the principal food of each respective species of swallow.

Notwithstanding what has been advanced above, some few sand-martens, I see, haunt the skirts of London, frequenting the dirty pools in St George's Fields, and about Whitechapel. The question is, where these build, since there are no banks or bold shores in that neighbourhood? Perhaps they nestle in the scaffold-holes of some old or new deserted building. They dip and wash as they fly sometimes, like the house-marten and swallow.

* Professor Rennie says, "We can hardly bring ourselves to believe that he meant the same species, or at least that he spoke in this instance from his own observation. A more decidedly social bird we are not acquainted with; since it not only nestles in numerous colonies, but also hunts for insects in troops of from thirty to fifty, and, as Buffon correctly remarks, associates freely with other swallows." La Vaillant, Montagu, and Wilson, all agree on this point; the latter says, it " appears to be the most social of its kind of all our swallows, living together in large communities of sometimes three or four hundred. Several of their holes," he adds, "are often within a few inches of each other, and extend in various strata along the front of a precipice, sometimes for eighty or a hundred yards. They are particularly fond of the shores of rivers, and in several places along the Ohio and the Kentucky river, they congregate in immense multitudes." Although it may be true, according to the remarks of these naturalists, that the sand-marten has been found in much frequented situations, we do not think that any proof of the inaccuracy of our author, as the Professor seems desirous of establishing. We have already pointed out, in our note at page 150, on the respectable authority of Dr Richardson, that one of the congeners of this bird, the cliff-swallow, has entirely changed its habits within these very few years; and this may be the case with the sand-marten also. These birds may have been in Mr White's time much more rare in this country than at present. As far as our own observation goes, we have always noticed this species in remote and rather sequestered situations. — ED.

L

Sand-martens differ from their congeners in the diminutiveness of their size, and in their colour, which is what is usually called a mouse-colour. Near Valencia, in Spain, they are taken, says Willoughby, and sold in the markets for the table, and are called by the country people, probably from their desultory, jerking manner of flight, Papillon de Montagna.*

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LETTER LX.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.

SELBORNE, September 2, 1774.

DEAR SIR, Before your letter arrived, and of my own accord, I had been remarking and comparing the tails of the male and female swallow, and this ere any young broods appeared; so that there was no danger of confounding the dams with their pulli; and, besides, as they were then always in pairs, and busied in the employ of nidification, there could be no room for mistaking the sexes, nor the individuals of different chimneys, the one for the other. From all my observations, it constantly appeared that each sex has the long feathers in its tail that give it that forked shape; with this difference, that they are longer in the tail of the male than in that of the female.

Nightingales, when their young first come abroad, and are helpless, make a plaintive and a jarring noise; and also a snapping or cracking, pursuing people along the hedges as they walk these last sounds seem intended for menace and defiance.+

*Dr Richardson considers the sand-marten of the fur countries of North America, as identical with the European bird; and, from all accounts, it is the same in every quarter of the globe. It breeds but once in the fur countries, generally late, and takes its departure about the middle of August with the rest of the swallow tribe; which confirms the fact that they live in societies. That traveller says, "We observed thousands of these sand-martens fluttering at the entrance of their burrows, near the mouth of the Mackenzie, in the sixty-eighth parallel, on the 4th July; and it is probable, from the state of the weather, that they had arrived at least a fortnight prior to that date. They are equally numerous in every district of the fur countries, wherein banks suitable for burrowing exist."-ED.

t It has been generally believed that the migratory songsters, both old and young, return to their native haunts in the breeding season. From this circumstance it is believed, that if any of these could be bred beyond the ordinary limits of their incubation, they would return in the following season to their birth place. Impressed with this belief, Sir John

The grasshopper-lark chirps all night in the height of

summer.

Swans turn white the second year, and breed the third. Weasels prey on moles, as appears by their being sometimes caught in mole-traps.*

Sparrow-hawks sometimes breed in old crows' nests; and the kestrel in churches and ruins.

There are supposed to be two sorts of eels in the island of Ely. The threads sometimes discovered in eels are perhaps their young the generation of eels is very dark and mysterious.t

Sinclair, Bart. long known for his patriotism, commissioned the late Mr Dickson of Covent Garden, to purchase for him as many nightingales' eggs as he could procure, at a shilling each. This was accordingly done, the eggs carefully packed in wool, and transmitted to Sir John by the mail. Sir John employed several men to find, and take care of, the nests of several robins, in places where the eggs might be deposited and hatched with security. The robins' eggs were removed, and replaced by those of the nightingale, which were all sat upon, hatched in due time, and the young brought up by the foster-parents. The songsters flew, when fully fledged, and were observed, for some time afterwards, near the places where they were incubated. In September, the usual migratory period, they disappeared, and never returned to the place of their birth. The nightingale is usually silent on the 1st of July. — ED.

* A man of acute observation, who had set a common spring moletrap, perceived that a mole was taken. He took the trap from the ground, allowing the mole to continue suspended in it. He was working in the neighbourhood, and chancing to look at the trap, he perceived a weasel actively engaged in attempting to get the mole out of the wires which held it. The weasel ran up the stick, which formed the spring of the trap, and descended on the captive, which he seized, and, tried by wriggling, twisting, and hanging by it, to disengage it from the trap, but without being able to effect his purpose. When exhausted with these fruitless efforts, he relinquished his hold, and dropt to the ground, where he rested for some time; he re-ascended the stick, and renewed his efforts with redoubled ardour. The workman, after seeing him make nearly a dozen attempts, took the mole from the trap, and threw it down as a reward for his perseverance; but, on seeing the man, he made his escape, and never returned while he remained. ED.

The uncertainty on this subject has, as is usual in most cases, invested it with a degree of fable. It is a common belief among schoolboys in Scotland, that horse hairs left in the water are, in a short time, converted into young eels; and they establish the fact, to their own full satisfaction, by experiment. Repairing to a rivulet, they stick a hair in the mud at the bottom, both because they think the incipient animal derives some nourishment from the ground, and to prevent its being swept away from their observation. On their return to the spot, next day perhaps, the admiring group gather round; one of them with his finger touches the hair, which being by this time moistened and rendered pliable, exhibits in the rippling stream a tremulous motion, that is unhesitatingly ascribed

Hen-harriers breed on the ground, and seem never to settle

on trees.

When redstarts shake their tails, they move them,horizontally, as dogs do when they fawn: the tail of the wagtail, when in motion, bobs up and down, like that of a jaded horse.

Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in breeding time as soon as frosty mornings come, they make a very piping, plaintive noise.

:

Many birds which become silent about midsummer, reassume their notes again in September, as the thrush, blackbird, woodlark, willow-wren, &c.; hence August is by much the most mute month, the spring, summer, and autumn through. Are birds induced to sing again because the temperament of autumn resembles that of spring?

Linnæus ranges plants geographically palms inhabit the tropics; grasses the temperate zones; and mosses and lichens the polar circles: no doubt animals may be classed in the same manner with propriety.

House-sparrows build under eaves in the spring; as the weather becomes hotter, they get out for coolness, and nest in plum-trees and apple-trees. These birds have been known sometimes to build in rooks' nests, and sometimes in the forks of boughs under rooks' nests.*

to animation. It is allowed to float down the current, and the urchin philosophers depart, fully persuaded of the possibility of the planting and rearing beds of eels. -ED.

* The late Mrs O'Brien, of Manor Place, Chelsea, being exceedingly fond of birds, kept a number in cages. One of them, a canary, was a great favourite, but the loudness of its song frequently obliged her to put it outside of the window, among trees trained in the front of the house. During breakfast one morning, a sparrow was observed to fly several times round the cage, to alight upon the top, and chirp to the canary; at length a reciprocal conversation ensued. He remained a few minutes, and then flew away, but soon returned with a worm in his bill, which he dropped into the cage, and again took his departure. The same attentions were manifested day after day, till they became so familiar, that the canary would at length receive the proffered food from the bill of his generous friend. This trait of the sparrow soon became known to the neighbours, who were frequent spectators of his acts of benevolence. Some of them, wishing to ascertain the extent of his kindly feelings, also put their birds out at the window, and he extended his attention to all of them; but his first and longest visit was always paid to his old acquaintance, Mrs O'Brien's canary.

Notwithstanding the sociable disposition manifested by this sparrow towards his feathered companions, he was excessively shy with regard to man, for they were obliged to observe his motions at a distance, as the instant he noticed them he flew away. These visits were continued till