Short Communications. 71 



nest, informed me that they were not martins, but sparrows, 

 that I heard; which latter birds, he said, had taken possession 

 of the clay-built mansion in the summer, to the expulsion of 

 the rightful owners, and that he had already taken one brood 

 of sparrows from the nest in question. My ears, it occurred 

 to me, could hardly be so deceived as to mistake the com- 

 fortable twit of the martin — a note so peculiarly expressive 

 of domestic satisfaction — for the vulgar chirp of the sparrow. 

 However, in order to " make assurance doubly sure," a lad- 

 der was procured ; and the nest, as I had expected, was found, 

 upon examination, to contain a brood of young martins. 

 The old bird, whose plumage seemed weatherbeaten and 

 discoloured, flew off, and, sporting high in air, was soon joined 

 by another individual of the same species, which, doubtless, was 

 the other parent bird. I watched the brood from time to time, 

 which remained in the nest till the 23d of October, when I had 

 occasion to leave home for a few days; but strictly enjoined 

 my informant meanwhile to keep an eye on the motions of 

 the feathered youngsters. They continued, he informs me, 

 snug in their quarters till the 25th, after which day he saw 

 them no more. He had expected, indeed, that the young 

 birds, after they were once launched into the air, would have 

 been seen sporting about in the vicinity of their native abode, 

 and trying their powers of wing, for some shorttime at least, pre- 

 viously to their setting out on their first long autumnal voyage ; 

 but the martins themselves, we may conclude, judged that it was 

 already time, and more than time, to be off at once to warmer 

 regions : at all events, they were not to be seen after the 25th of 

 October. I do not recollect that another instance of a brood 

 of //irfindines reared at so advanced a period of the autumn, 

 ever came under my observation before ; and I have very 

 little doubt that the few stragglers which are occasionally to 

 be seen long after the main body has taken its departure, 

 consist mostly 'of such late-hatched broods, or of their parents, 

 which have been detained in the country on the business of 

 incubation and rearing their young. In the present instance, 

 the lateness of the brood may perhaps be accounted for by 

 the circumstance, already mentioned, of the martins having 

 been dispossessed of their dwelling in the earlier part of the 

 season by the usurping sparrows; and thus the family 

 arrangements of the former became protracted. 



The following are the dates of the last appearance of the 

 .fJirundines in this neighbourhood for the autumn of 1832: 

 their arrival in the spring of the same year has already been 

 recorded, Vol. V. p. 596. : —Swift, last seen (1832), August 



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