240 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



here give in their entirety, since they concern a 

 bird so loved. 



^^ May 25, 1900.^ — This morning I watched a 

 pair of martlets building their nest against the 

 wall of my house. 



" 5.55. — Both birds fly to the nest, and one, that 

 is much the handsomer and more purple of the two, 

 makes several pecks at the other, in a manner half 

 playful, half authoritative. I take this one to be 

 the male, and the other, who is greyer, the female. 

 She, in return for her husband's friendly pecking, 

 cossets him, a little, with her beak, nibbling his head. 

 Neither of the two are working at the nest. The 

 throat of the male seems very much swelled, yet he 

 deposits nothing, and, in a little while, flies off^, 

 leaving the female, who, however, soon follows him. 

 The male, as I believe him to be, now comes and 

 goes, several times. Each time, he just touches the 

 edge of the nest with his bill, flying ofF almost 

 immediately afterwards, nor can I discover that he 

 adds to the mud of it, on any one occasion. 



''6.10. — Now, however, he has put — is still 

 putting — a little piece there. Bending down over 

 the nest's edge, which he just touches with his bill, 

 he communicates a little quivering motion to his 

 head, during which, as it would seem, something is 

 pushed out of the beak. I cannot make out the 

 process, but now that he is gone, I see a little wet- 

 looking area, which may be either fresh mud that 

 has just been brought, or a moistened bit of the 

 old. I think, however, it is the first. Now, again, 

 he comes as before, flies off and returns, and 

 thus continues, never bringing anything in the 



