HIRUNDINIDS. 281 
and is accordingly a constant and numerous summer 
’ arriving about the 
’ 
visitor to the “summer county, 
same time as the Swallow,—Yarrell says a few days 
later, and this appears to me to be the case, but 
there is very little difference,—and departing also 
about the same time. There is one very late in- 
stance of the stay of this bird recorded in the ‘ Zoolo- 
gist’—as late as the 10th of December:* several 
other instances of late stay are recorded, but this is 
the latest I can find. 
The food of the Martin, like that of the Swallow, 
consists entirely of insects, which it takes on the 
wing in the same manner as that bird. 
The nest is made of mud, and is usually fixed 
against the side of a house, or some other building, 
immediately beneath the roof or coping, or some 
projecting “‘jutty frieze or coign of vantage.” 
Whole colonies of nests may be seen on the cliffs 
by the sea-side, some overhanging portion of rock 
being taken advantage of, immediately underneath 
which the nest is usually fixed: in such places as 
these I have watched them, in considerable num- 
bers,— especially at Teignmouth,— feeding their 
young, as late in the year as September: these, 
therefore, must have been second or even third 
broods, and the young can only be just able to fly 
when they have to begin their migratory journey. 
* ‘ Zoologist’ for 1866 (Second Series, p. 172). 
2B3 
