344- Black Marten (Vlirundo A^pus L.). 



close to houses and public roads. It arrives and departs about 

 the same time as Lanius Collurio. I have a female bird of 

 the red-backed species, in the full garb of the adult male. 

 I had found the nest, and observed near the spot apparently 

 two male birds ; not being able to discover the female I was 

 induced to shoot both ; and, on dissection, one proved the 

 female, with the eggs much enlarged, and one nearly ready 

 for exclusion. I mention this circumstance, as this change 

 of plumage in some species has been attributed to barrenness. 



I am, Sir, &c. 

 &oke Nai/land, Sufolk, March 16. 1831. J. D. Hoy. 



P.S. — A stork (y^'rdea Ciconia) was shot near Mildenhall, 

 in this county, in the beginning of July, 18S0; and, during 

 the month of December, 1830, six specimens of the waxen 

 chatterer (^mpelis garrulus) were killed in the vicinity of 

 Ipswich. — J. D. H. 



Art. X. On the Black Marten (Uirundo A^pus Lin.). By W. L. 



Sir, 

 Mr. White, in his fascinating letters on the natural history 

 of his district, gives several interesting memoranda respecting 

 the habits of the black marten, and he tells enough to show 

 that, like the starling, it is sometimes capricious, and some- 

 times exercises a sound discretion in the choice of a place for 

 breeding. Jn this, indeed, many birds are evidently ruled by 

 circumstances. For instance, I recollect, when a schoolboy, 

 a commonwealth of sparrows that had for generations nestled 

 in the thatch of an old two-storied mill. By their numbers, 

 which probably might lead them to their licentious and irre- 

 gular mode of occupancy, the roof had become, from eaves to 

 ridges, a mass of holed and perterebrated shapelessness ; and, 

 as it had been considered both as " labour in vain " and 

 needless expense to renew it with similar materials, the mill 

 was slated. The kiln had been slated before for a different 

 reason, and the adjoining cottages were too low to be safe in 

 the neighbonrhood of a town that, over and, above the usual 

 swarms of bareheaded runagates, contained two boarding- 

 schools. The sparrows, seemingly with common consent, 

 removed to a very old garden hedge, that had grown wp into 

 hawthorn trees, and there made large clumsy nests of straw, 

 each nearly the size of a magpie's, solid at first, and then they 

 made the necessary holes in them, as they are accustomed to 

 do in the eaves of a house. 



