290 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



cold that he actually attempted to take one in his 

 hand. He thought it was an extraordinary thing, 

 but there is no doubt that a few swallows are seen 

 every year up to mid-winter somewhere in England 

 although their appearance is not recorded; also that 

 these birds have been lying up in a torpid con- 

 dition until a bright warm day revived and brought 

 them out. Few of these stay-at-home swallows can 

 survive to the spring. 



Another curious incident was related by another 

 man, a very old wild-fowler of the place. He said 

 that when he was a young man living in his home, 

 a small hamlet near Wroxham Broad, a number of 

 martins bred every year on his cottage. They thought 

 a great deal of their martins and were proud to have 

 them there, and every spring he used to put up a board 

 over the door to prevent the entrance from being 

 messed by the birds. One spring a pair of martins 

 made their nest just above the door and had no sooner 

 completed it than a pair of sparrows stepped in and 

 took possession and at once began to lay eggs. The 

 martins made no fight at all, but did not go away; 

 they started making a fresh nest as close up as they 

 could against the old one. The entrance to the new 

 nest was made to look the same way as in the first, 

 so that the back part was built up against the front 

 of the other. It was quickly made and when com- 

 pleted quite blocked up the entrance of the old nest. 

 The sparrows had disappeared; he wondered why 

 after taking a nest that didn't belong to them they 

 had allowed themselves to be pushed out in this way. 



