Page:White - The natural history of Selborne, and the naturalist's calendar, 1879.djvu/204

182 seen, the smallest known hirundo; though Brisson asserts that there is one much smaller, and that is the hirundo 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 reciting the circumstances attending the life and conversation of this little bird, since it is fera naturâ, 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.1

(Hirundo riparia).

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