The House-Martin 
regard. He had noted the courageous 
way in which the bird places ifs mest. and 
the social instinct which leads it to build 
in companies where it can find convenient 
settlements. In one passage we are told: 
The martlet 
Builds in the weather on the outward wall, 
Even in the force and road of casualty.? 
When King Duncan arrives at the Castle 
of Inverness, and is delighted with the 
situation of the building and the pleasant- 
ness of the air, Banquo calls his attention 
to the numerous nests of the house-martin 
as evidence of the salubrity of the climate: 
This guest of summer, 
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 
By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath 
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze, 
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle : 
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed 
The air is delicate.” 
I have reserved for the last place in the 
list of Shakespeare’s birds his references 
1 Merchant of Venice, 11. 1x. 28, 2 Macbeth, 1. vi. 3. 
fe) 105 
