370 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



foot with earth. Rocks, trees and telegraph wires, 

 needful resting-places for meaner fowl, have no 

 charm for him. Least terrestrial of flying things 

 it would seem that, apart from his care for his pos- 

 terity and granted a reasonable supply of insects 

 and of atmosphere, he might live out his allotted 

 span in absolute space and without the need of any 

 planet beneath him whatever. 



Resting here by the riverside, the grey w^alls of 

 the abbey, with the gravestones at its feet, can be 

 seen through the trees. It is midsummer, and the 

 Swifts are sailing high, the black crescents showing 

 clear against the blue. Suddenly a pair descend 

 shrieking, and make at lightning speed for a niche 

 in the abbey, where the wall is bare of ivy. One 

 clings for a moment, then enters, soon followed by 

 the second. Sometimes three birds go in, one 

 closely following the other, and all shrieking the 

 while. Within, in a convenient hollow in the 

 masonry, the nest is placed, a few straws, feathers 

 and dried grass, all collected on the wing and glued 

 together by the mucous secretions of the bird. This 

 is the nest — the nearest approach we have to the 

 edible nest of the Chinese epicure. 



At the river there are always House Martins to 

 be seen, easy to be distinguished by the band of 

 white on the back. It is said that they are less 

 plentiful in England than formerly. To speak wdth 

 certainty upon this point is not easy, for the falling 

 off may be local, and there may be an accession 

 in numbers in other places. Certain it is that 

 many thriving colonies of House Martins have 



