A PRETTY SIGHT 247 



doing so — if, indeed, this is the explanation. When 

 he flies in, this last time, it does not look such a 

 bulk in the mouth as before. It may be — and this, 

 perhaps, is more probable — that it had not before 

 been sufliciently worked up with the salivary secre- 

 tions, and that the bird was doing this, all the time, 

 though making its little visits as a matter of custom. 

 During the earlier ones he had the nest to himself, 

 but, on the last, his partner was there, and he almost 

 pushed her out of it, with a little haste-pleading 

 twittering, seeming to say, ' Mine is the greater 

 need.' Both the sparrows have been, several times, 

 in and out of the old nest, during this, and some- 

 times sitting in it together. The hen is building in 

 good, workmanlike fashion, whereas the cock con- 

 tributes but little. The mud which these martins 

 used to build with, was brought, by them, from a 

 little puddle in the village street, till this became 

 dry, after which I did not see where they went. I 

 have seen quite a number of them, including some 

 swallows, collecting it at a pond in a village near 

 here. A very pretty sight it was, to see them all so 

 busy, and doing something dirty so cleanly — for, 

 after all, swallowing mud is dirty if looked at in 

 a commonplace kind of way, though not at all 

 so, really, if we consider the end to which it is 

 done. 



'' 30//^. — Two more martlets are beginning a nest 

 just above my bedroom window, and on the very 

 mud-stains of their last one. Others seem choosing 

 a site, for two pairs of them hang upon certain 

 spots, twittering together, in a most talking manner, 

 flying away, then, and returning to talk again, as if 



