A TWITTERING CHORUS 253 



morning, I saw a house-martin attacked by another 

 one, whilst entering its nest with some feathers. I 

 called to our Hannah to bring my son's fishing-rod, 

 and never took my eyes off the nest, whilst she was 

 coming with it. Meanwhile, one martin had come 

 out, and, on my touching the nest with the rod, a 

 second did, also. One of a pair, therefore, had, 

 by making its nest, excited the anger of a third 

 bird, and this I have seen more than once. Is the 

 angry bird, in such cases, a mere stranger, or 

 is it a rival, in some way ? If the last — and the 

 other seems unlikely — does one hen consort with 

 two or more cocks, or vice versa ? I have noticed, 

 however, with more than one kind of bird, that the 

 hens seem jealous of each other collecting materials 

 for the nest.^ 



" August '^rd, — It is customary for two of the 

 young martins to sit with their heads looking 

 out at the door of the nest — very pretty they 

 look — and ever and anon one of the parent 

 birds will fly in to them, as she circles round, 

 and hanging there, just for a moment, there is 

 a little twittering chorus — mostly I think from the 

 chicks — and off she flies again. It is difficult to 

 be quite sure whether, in these short flying visits, the 

 chicks are really fed. Sometimes they are so short 

 that this seems hardly possible. At others some- 

 thing does seem to pass, and the mouth of one of 

 the chicks may be seen opened, just after the parent 

 flies off. Yet it hardly seems like serious feeding. 

 But at this very moment a bird has, thus, flown in to 

 the young, and one of them, I am sure, was, this time, 

 1 " Bird Watching," pp. 104, 105. 



