A Tale of Two Martins 
they rest on a beam, or projection of 
some kind, and their eggs are white, 
speckled with dark red spots. The 
martins have not got the long points to 
their tails, and they are not so glossy, a 
duller black, with quite white breasts, 
and another broad white band round the 
lower part of their backs. They are 
both of them so beautiful that it is diffi- 
cult to say which is the prettier. And 
instead of making their nests inside 
stables and buildings they make them 
under the eaves of houses, outside, and 
only leave a small hole by which they 
can squeeze in and out. 
All through the long summer day 
they were wheeling and darting hither 
and thither, catching flies and little 
gnats—sometimes over the fields, and 
sometimes over the ponds and streams ; 
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