176 THE HOME OF A BIRD 



will forsake the breeding district, and betake itself to 

 some other neighbourhood, often a near one, for the 

 winter, to return, however, to the same nesting- 

 trees in the following spring. Some three hundred 

 Rooks that nest before my home, do not practise 

 even this short migration ; but after residing at the 

 rookery from March until September continue to 

 visit it daily through the winter, retiring at sundown 

 to a general roosting place a few miles distant, where 

 many birds of this kind, from different parts of the 

 surrounding country, congregate to sleep. By this 

 one may see that definite groups of birds have a 

 fixed haunt ; in fact, in the case of paired birds it is 

 safe to affirm that they have their own nests, which 

 they claim and repair each spring. 



It is not often possible, however, to lay one's 

 finger, so to say, upon a particular bird, and say 

 ' 'This is the very bird that left us, and it is now 

 come back over thousands of miles of land and sea 

 to build its nest in the identical spot it has occupied 

 each summer through a series of years." By a 

 fortunate chance I am able to offer this guarantee. 



A pair of House-martins have for three successive 

 years built in a stable-loft at the residence of Mr. 

 Carse, of Stretford, Lancashire, affixing their mud 

 nest to a beam running across the ceiling some four 

 feet within the loft, the entrance to which is through 

 a small door left open during the warmer months. 

 The nest is cleaned away each autumn and is 

 renewed each spring. 



As a rule the House-martin builds quite in the 

 open beneath the eaves of houses, out-houses, and 

 the like, so that so enclosed a spot as this loft, 



