57 



GENUS CHELIDON. 

 MAETIN. 



Chelidon urbica (Linnaeus). 

 Local Name — Martlet. 



A summer visitor ; as common as the Swallow, but 

 not arriving as a rule until a week or ten days after it, 

 though leaving much about the same time. The Martin 

 is subject to many vicissitudes in the course of its nest- 

 building. Defects in the eaves and troughs under which 

 it plasters its mud habitation often cause the nest to be 

 washed down in heavy rains, and this frequently happens 

 when the foundation is commenced too low, and a roof 

 of a pent-house construction has to be made. It is pro- 

 bable that many of the late broods in autumn (occa- 

 sionally as late as October) are those of pairs whose 

 first homes have been destroyed in this way. Some- 

 times there are two holes in the nest. The Martin is 

 double-brooded, and the eggs, generally four, sometimes 

 three in number, are not laid before the beginning of 

 June in most localities, though, apparently, a week 

 earlier on some parts of the shores of Morecambe 

 Bay. 



[Mr. R. J. Howard informs me that at Tarporley, 

 Cheshire, where Sparrows are rigorously destroyed, he 

 counted 32 occupied nests of House-Martins under 18 

 yards of eaves. I mention this, because the interference 

 of the Sparrow with the House-Martin is general, and 

 has an important bearing upon the decrease of this 

 and other insectivorous species in Great Britain ; also 

 in America. — Ed.] 



