WHITE-RUMPED S^rALLOVr. 589 



young to leave their home. In a family of five, three left the 

 nest a day before the others. If the happy day prove fine, 

 they seldom return to the nest till sunset ; if otherwise, I have 

 seen them return two or three times a day to rest themselves. 

 The first brood, which is generally abroad by the middle of 

 June, live apart. The second brood is fledged by the end of 

 August. They and their parents join the first brood and their 

 companions, at Linton Distillery, when some hundreds of the 

 species are to be seen. The remainder of their stay is spent 

 in short aerial excursions, in sunning themselves on house-tops, 

 in feasting and song ; until, about the third week of Septem- 

 ber, when they bid farewell to the scenes of their youth, which 

 many of them are never again to behold, and away they speed 

 in a body far towards the noontide sun." 



" Martins,"" says Th. Durham Weir, Esq., "have built their 

 nests in most of my windows for many successive years. The 

 panes of glass being greatly soiled by the droppings of the young 

 birds, I resolved that I should prevent them from troubling me 

 next season, and accordingly took steps to that effect. They went 

 off" in a pet, and to my astonishment did not return for four 

 years, at least they did not attempt to build, for they only ho- 

 vered about the house for a few days, and then took their de- 

 parture. This shews their wonderful sagacity and recollection. 

 They must have remembered the harsh way in which I had 

 formerly treated them, and advised their companions, in some 

 way, of which we cannot form a right conception, to bew^are of 

 taking up their residence at the abode of so hard-hearted a fel- 

 low. I may remark, that had I then been so keen an ornitho- 

 loo^ist as I now am, I w^ould not have treated these interestins; 

 visitors in such an unfriendly manner. In 1885, being very 

 anxious to procure some good specimens for stuffing, I went 

 into the town of Bathgate, late one evening, and with the aid 

 of a ladder caught several pairs sitting on their eggs. As they 

 were all more or less injured in the feathers of their tails, no 

 doubt owing to the way in which they build their nests, I im- 

 mediately set them at liberty. It is very remarkable, that next 

 year not a single nest which I had searched was reoccupied, 

 and the windows were completely deserted, and have been so 



