AUTUMN, 191 2 293 



a slow feeble manner over the water. They perched 

 frequently on a small bramble bush growing by the 

 pond and were so tame or stupefied by the cold that 

 he actually attempted to take one in his hand. He 

 thought it was an extraordinary thing, but there is 

 no doubt that a few swallows are seen every year up to 

 mid-winter somewhere in England although their 

 appearance is not recorded ; also that these birds have 

 been lying up in a torpid condition until a bright 

 warm day revived and brought them out. Few of 

 these stay-at-home swallows can survive to the spring. 

 Another curious incident was related by another 

 man, a very old wild-fowler of the place. He said 

 that when he was a young man living in his home, 

 a small hamlet near Wroxham Broad, a number of 

 martins bred every year on his cottage. They thought 

 a great deal of their martins and were proud to have 

 them there and every spring he used to put up a board 

 over the door to prevent the entrance from being 

 messed by the birds. One spring a pair of martins 

 made their nest just above the door and had no sooner 

 completed it than a pair of sparrows stepped in and 

 took possession and at once began to lay eggs. The 

 martins made no fight at all, but did not go away ; 

 they started making a fresh nest as close up as they 

 could against the old one. The entrance to the 

 new nest was made to look the same way as in the 

 first, so that the back part was built up against 

 the front of the other. It was quickly made and 

 when completed quite blocked up the entrance of 



