SWALLOWS 373 



of late years disappeared from their ancestral 

 haunts. 



The House and Sand Martins have one common 

 characteristic lacking in the Swallow and the Swift : 

 they love to nest in companies. The House Martin 

 especially, not content with the brotherhood of its 

 own kin, shares w^ith the Sparrow and the Rook 

 an affection for the proximity of man. An isolated 

 rookery is hard to find, and a Sparrow rarely builds 

 more than fifty yards from an inhabited house. 

 This is not remarkable in the Sparrow's case, for 

 he is a born hanger-on and thrives on the industry 

 of others. The Martin, on the other hand, seeks 

 its food afar and asks nothing of man save his 

 companionship. True, it may be said that it needs 

 the eaves of his house or barn for a nesting-place,^ 

 but in the remote fields there are many such barns 

 loved by the Swallow, and these the Alartin almost 

 invariably neglects. 



I have in my mind an old farm-house set in 

 green fields. A little winding lane, with honey- 

 suckle and W'ild roses on its banks, runs past the 

 door to join the old coaching road miles away, as 

 a tributary stream might join a river. Behind the 

 house, is a long mistal, fragrant of cows, with 

 slanting steps leading to the granary. Lender the 

 mistal eaves, for the whole line, the Martins have 

 built. Here and there is a little break where the 

 mud foundations have given way, but for the most 



^ That the House Martin associates with mankind from affec- 

 tion rather than from necessity, is shown by the fact that, if 

 need be, the wildest sea-cliffs afford it a perfectly satisfactory 

 nesting site. 



