296 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



generally. One man told me that last winter (1911) 

 he was at the neighbouring village of Warham, one 

 bright sunny day about the middle of December, and 

 saw five or six swallows at a pond there flying about in 

 a slow feeble manner over the water. They perched 

 frequently on a small bramble bush growing by the 

 pond and were so tame or stupefied by the cold that 

 he actually attempted to take one in his hand. He 

 thought it was an extraordinary thing, but there is no 

 doubt that a few swallows are seen every year up to 

 mid-winter somewhere in England although their ap- 

 pearance is not recorded ; also that these birds have been 

 lying up in a torpid condition until a bright warm day 

 revived and brought them out. Few of these stay-at- 

 home swallows can survive to the spring. 



Another curious incident was related by another man, 

 a very old wild-fowler of the place. He said that when 

 he was a young man living in his home, a small hamlet 

 near Wroxham Broad, a number of martins bred every 

 year on his cottage. They thought a great deal of 

 their martins and were proud to have them there and 

 every spring he used to put up a board over the door 

 to prevent the entrance from being messed by the birds. 

 One spring a pair of martins made their nest just above 

 the door and had no sooner completed it than a pair 

 of sparrows stepped in and took possession and at once 

 began to lay eggs. The martins made no fight at all, 

 but (lid not go away; they started making a fresh nest 

 as close up as they could against the old one. The 

 entrance to the new nest was made to look the same 



