HOUSE-MARTIN. 337 



determination ; sometimes, in a body, pursuing a liawk 

 for a long- distance, "mobbing" him in every possible 

 way, and fairly bewildering him with their endless evolu- 

 tions, as they swarm around with their twittering 

 menaces. On one occasion also, I saw a common 

 pigeon treated in the same manner by a large flight of 

 martins, merely, as far as I could see, because he passed 

 through their ranks ; but so severely did they resent this 

 intrusion that, after a long bewildering chase, they 

 fairly drove him to his pigeon-locker, glad enough to 

 escape from such a nest of hornets. At times, too, I have 

 noticed a strange antipathy between the pied- wagtail and 

 the house-martin, which it is difficult to attribute to 

 anything but jealousy in a kindred pursuit of insect 

 food. In every instance the attack has been made by 

 the wagtail, when the two birds have accidentally crossed 

 each other's path, in which case I have watched the 

 pursuer and pursued as far as the eye could reach, twist- 

 ing and turning with such wondrous rapidity that the 

 two birds have seemed like one in the closeness of their 

 movements. On one occasion I had been watching some 

 thirty or forty martins sitting in rows upon the telegraph 

 wires, when a pair of pied-wagtails came and perched 

 amongst them ; this seemed the signal for most of the 

 martins to fly off, and the wagtails, each singling out an 

 object for the chase, started in swift pursuit. Whether 

 or not our British Hirundines believe that the telegraph 

 wires were erected for their special accommodation, 

 undoubtedly one of the strangest points in their modern 

 history is the manner in which they avail themselves of 

 these novel resting places. Indeed, when beholding, as I 

 have often done m autumn, each wire lined with their 

 little bodies, more especially in the vicinity of our rivers 

 and broads, one wonders, almost, how they managed with- 

 out them, since no other perch seems half so suitable for 

 their tiny feet, or affords so great facility for launching 



