When they happen to breed near hedges and enclosures, they are
dispossessed of their breeding holes by the house-sparrow, which is
on the same account a fell adversary to house-martins.
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-martin and swallow; and withdraw about
Michaelmas.
Though in some particular districts they may happen to abound, yet
in 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-martins; 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-martins, scattered
here and there, live a sequestered life among some abrupt sand-
hills, and in the banks of some few rivers.
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