KNIGHTS AND CASTLES. 215 



ways, talking in loud, sweet voices, much above their usual key. 

 Their excitement and joy were delightful to witness. 



In time they began to think of nest building. The old 

 castles underwent a spring cleaning, and the furniture was 

 thoroughly renovated. They are cleanly birds, and love sweet 

 fresh beds and pleasant situations. Do you recollect how 

 Shakespeare's Scottish general in the play of " Macbeth " men- 

 tions this daintiness of the English martin — a bird which in 

 habits more nearly resembles our eaves-swallows than our 



martin ? 



" This guest of summer, 

 The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 

 By his lov'd mansionry. that the heaven's breath 

 Smells wooingly here ; no jutty, frieze, 

 Nor coign of vantage, but this bird 

 Hath made his pendant bed, and procreant cradle. 

 Wiere they much breed and haunt, I have observed 

 Tlie air is delicate.''' 



A wonderfully accurate observation, as you see, for that 

 early day, and an excellent naturalist this Banquo, or 

 Shakespeare. 



The martin is equally j)articular about her bed. Other 

 swallows, except those building mud nests, gather their 

 material on the Aving, but the martin is deliberate and critical 

 in her choice. Near our neighbor's martin house there once 

 was a field of oats bounded by a high board fence that, 

 by reason of a convenient knot-hole, was a fine place for 

 spies and eaves-droppers to birds' private business. From 

 behind it one could observe the martins. In the spring much 

 of the oat-straw, still clean and bright, was left among the 

 stubble, and to it the martins came for nesting-stuff. The 

 knight and his lady always came together and dropped among 

 the stubble. They would chat a little together softly, and 



