'Their Eggs and Nests, 131 



MARTIN — {Chelidon urbica ; formerly, Hirundo 



urbicd). 



Martlet, Martin Swallow, House Martin, Window 

 Martin, Eaves Swallow, Window Swallow. — This fami- 

 liar little bird, whose cheeping note in the nests above 

 our chamber windows is one of the sounds we should 

 sorely misSjfrequents the dwellingsof men quiteasmuch 

 as, T think more than, the Swallow. Every one knows 

 where to look for the Martin's nest, and many a house 

 can we all call to mind which seems, from some 

 peculiarity in its site or external fashion, to be par- 

 ticularly affected by these birds — and certainly, in 

 most cases, the inmates of the house take much care 

 to save their confiding feathered friends from dis- 

 turbance. In many places, however, the Martin forms 

 large nesting colonies, which take possession of a 

 series of overhanging ledges on some steep rocky face, 

 and there build their nests in great numbers. In 

 Berwickshire, on the banks of the Whiteadder, I knew 

 of such a colony, and others elsewhere : the principal 

 ones, however, being on the rock-bound coast between 

 St. Abb's Head and Burnmouth. Hundreds of these 

 birds nested in several different places upon those 

 lofty precipices."^ No description of the nest itself — 

 beyond what was said in the notice of the Swallow — 

 seems requisite. The number of eggs, which are per- 

 fectly white, seems seldom to exceed six. 



1 Of course Martins and Swallows were in being long before man, 

 and necessarily, therefore, before man's buildings. These birds, 

 then, must have had their building-site when neither chimney, barn, 

 nor eaves were in existence. In the face of this fact "Chimney 

 Swallow," "Eaves Swallow," and the like are, as names, only 

 partially justifiabie. 



