272 BRITAIN'S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



The reappearance of summer visitors — especially of 

 House-Martins — in mild weather in late autumn was one 

 of the points which influenced Gilbert White ; but ' these 

 birds are almost certainly strangers, and not natives of the 

 locality in which they are seen/ 



Gilbert White also noted that early Swallows 'retired' 

 on the reappearance of wintry weather in spring, and 

 ' came out ' again when spring weather had permanently 

 set in. Is it not more reasonable to suppose that these 

 early examples perished, and that others took their places 

 later ? 



To touch on another point : we hear of a Roman 

 knight who had the news of the chariot races at Rome 

 carried to his friends at his country house one hundred 

 and thirty miles away by liberating Swallows brought 

 from there and dyed the colour of the winner. Recently 

 Swallows have been experimentally used as ' homers ' in 

 France, and one bird is reported to have maintained an 

 average pace of one hundred and six miles an hour for 

 one hundred and sixty miles. 



THE MARTIN 



(Chelidon urbica). 

 Plate 92. 



Like the Mai'tlet 

 Builds in the weather on the outward wall 



The Martin — the Martlet of Heraldry and of older 

 writers, frequently called the House-Martin to avoid 

 confusion with the Sand-Martin — can be readily distin- 

 guished from its ally the Swallow by the absence of the 

 long tail-feathers, and by the greater proportion of white 

 in its plumage : the throat and entire imder-parts are of 



