MARTIN. 351 



The Martin sets about breeding very soon after it returns 

 to us, and a nest which has outlasted the winter's storms is 

 almost at once reoccupied ; but if a new nest needs to be 

 built the operation is often greatly retarded by the inclem- 

 ency of the season and various accidents to which the rising 

 edifice is liable. Indeed both this species and the Swallow 

 seem dependent in this as in some other respects on the 

 weather, for any excess of wet or drought renders the collec- 

 tion and preparation of building-materials more difficult, 

 while the Martin's work is so exposed that heavy, driving 

 rain will often wash it away. Then too, when all is happily 

 ended, there is the frequent eviction of the owners by House- 

 Sparrows, as already (page 91) related, and, even if retaliation 

 be ever made in the way that has been asserted, delay is 

 not thereby avoided. Martins are much more social than 

 Swallows, and their nests are not uncommonly built to touch 

 one another in a long row under eaves in a favourite locality. 

 Yet this is a sight now not often seen, for several good observers 

 have remarked that the Martin is less plentiful than formerly 

 in England, though the Editor is inclined to believe that its 

 numbers, which in his experience had certainly diminished, 

 have within the last three or four years somewhat increased. 



The eggs, four or five in number, of a pure translucent 

 white, measure from "83 to '75 by from '54 to *5 in. Incu- 

 bation lasts thirteen days. The young are at first fed within 

 the nest, but on growing older thrust their head out of the 

 opening to receive the nourishment brought them by their 

 parents who cling to the outside while feeding them. Two 

 broods are almost invariably brought forth from the same 

 nest in the course of the season, and not unfrequently a 

 third, the hen beginning to lay again so soon as each is 

 flown. Jenncr states (Phil. Trans. 1824, p. 25) that, at 

 Berkeley in 1786, a pair of Martins hatched four broods, but 

 the latest, when about half fledged, perished in the nest in 

 the middle of October, and the parents returning to it the 

 following May threw out the skeletons. 



fenUre, our House-Martins, and the other to Ifirondellcs de ckeminie, our Chim- 

 ney-Swallows ! (Cf. Ann. N. H. ser. 4, v. p. 307, vi. p. 270.) 



VOL. II. Z Z 



