90 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



if it be undisturbed whilst he is rearing his family; but if the 

 nests be broken down after they are gone, they will all com- 

 mence building on the ruins of the old house. The house- 

 martin is more persevering than the swallow, and if an urchin 

 take it into his head to knock the half-finished nest down, it 

 will build it again and again unto the fourth or fifth time. 



And in this cosy warm bed of feathers — for the swallow's 

 bed is scantier and open to the air, for he is hardier — the 

 martin often mixes horse-hair and grass freely with layers 

 of feathers and wool. And both sit, and the young are fed 

 in the same manner as the swallow. When they are suffi- 

 ciently strong, they crowd, as do the swallows, to the edge 

 of the nest, and the old birds hang upon the nest and feed 

 them so. But the martins remain in the nest till they are 

 very strong on the wing ; indeed the}'^ often return to their 

 nests after their first flights from the cradle. This short 

 flight in ascending curves with quickly beating wings leads 

 them to a height whence they seem to swoop down a curve, 

 and so fly on up and down. And they never leave their 

 birthplace far, hovering round about their cradle, being fed 

 on the wing until the golden harvest-days are over, when 

 they collect into smaller flocks than do the swallows, and 

 generally leave the country before them ; for they are not so 

 hardy, as I have said, and they are wise to flee the chill grey 

 fogs of England whilst their bodies are still strong. 



The Sand-Martin. 



The greatest lover of the Broads is the hardy little sand- 

 martin. He is often the first to arrive ; a swallow or sand- 

 martin heralding the coming spring in turn, and when he 

 does come, he is nearly always to be seen by the water-side 

 sitting on old gladen stalks, gracefully resting on a bent 

 reed, or hawking over the rippling broad for flies — flies that 

 are born and bred in the reed-beds. But the flocks soon 

 break up, and seek some sand or gravel-pit or the clay-pits 



