328 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



on fact, as I have seen them often on green branches, 

 but the leafless bough affords an open perch, from 

 which they can more readily launch themselves with 

 their long tapering wings, and hence no doubt their 

 modern predilection for the telegraph wires. Young 

 and old, still congregating together, are seen in little 

 flocks about our meadows and pastures, till instinct 

 warns them of the coming winter, when suddenly they 

 are gone, and, in the absence of their graceful forms 

 around our dwellings or about our paths, in every out- 

 door occupation, we realize in the very void created, 

 the pleasure they impart in summer. 



HIRUNDO URBICA, Linnaeus. 

 HOUSE-MARTIN. 



The fullest and most accurate account of the habits of 

 this familiar species, as indeed of most of our migrants and 

 residents, is that given by Macgillivray in his " British 

 Birds" — a work far too little known to the naturalists 

 of this country, the minute observations of its talented 

 author being equalled only by his descriptive powers. 

 For my own purpose, a brief sketch of the ^' ways and 

 means" of the House-Martin, as observed in this county, 

 will suffice in the present volume, though a small book 

 might be written, without exhausting the subject, on 

 the varied actions, customs, and peculiarities of this 

 universal favourite. 



The winter has passed and gone, though still the 

 chilling blast of the north-east winds makes one sym- 

 pathise with Hood"^ in his version of '' The Seasons." 



* " Come gentle spring ! ethereal ^nildness come ! 

 Oh ! Thomson, void of rhyme as well as reason, 

 How could'st thou thus poor human nature hum ? 

 There's no such season." 



