590 IIIRUNDO URBICA. 



ever since (September 1839.) In one of the windows, how- 

 ever, in which there were two nests, I had left one nest un- 

 touched, and to it a pair of Martins, perhaps the former occu- 

 pants, returned the follovring season, and brought out young 

 ones. This is another proof of their astonishing memory. In 

 the summer of 1836, six pairs built at Boghead. One evening 

 when nearly dark, I caught a pair on their nest, but as they 

 did not please me, I immediately put them away. No sooner, 

 however, did they escape from my hand, than they set up a 

 cry of alarm, upon which I heard the other Martins fly out of 

 their nests, uttering the same sound ; and though they had 

 been for a considerable time on their eggs, they never returned 

 to them, but left the neighbourhood altogether. Birds in gene- 

 ral, it is said, ' are wise in their selection of situation."" ' The 

 choice they make,' says the celebrated Wilson, in his interest- 

 ing account of the American Chimney Swallow, ' bespeaks 

 more than mere unreasoning instinct, and does honour to their 

 discernment.*' With the Martins which have frequented my 

 house, this has indeed been the case. Although for several 

 years they have built in the north, east, and south windows of 

 it, I have never seen them attempt to build in those exposed 

 to the west. The length of time which they take in the erec- 

 tion of their nests seems to depend on the state of the weather 

 or their own inclinations. On the 20th of May 1837 three 

 pairs of them began to build. In the forenoon of the 6th of 

 July one of their nests was completed, the other two were not 

 finished until the 10th and 11th of the same month. I have, 

 however, seen them inhabited in the course of six and eight days, 

 particularly when the former ones had been washed down by 

 heavy showers of rain. A sparrow which for several years had 

 built on the top of a leaden water-pipe, having been disappoint- 

 ed of his old situation, was determined to remain as near to it 

 as he could. He watched the Martins for eight days with un- 

 ceasing care whilst they were erecting their abodes. No sooner 

 was the outwork of the first of them finished, than he took 

 forcible possession of it. During the greater part of a day, I 

 observed the proprietors with six of their friends attempting to 

 put the invader out, but their endeavours proved fruitless, as 



