HOUSE-MARTINS. 1 79 



aspect or house. It is a piteous sight to see them 

 labouring, when half their nest is washed away, and 

 bringing dirt " generis lapsi sarcire ruinas." Thus 

 is instinct a most wonderfully unequal faculty; in 

 some instances so much above reason ; in other re- 

 spects, so far below it ! Martins love to frequent 

 towns, especially if there are great lakes and rivers 

 at hand ; nay, they even affect the close air of Lon- 

 don. And I have not only seen them nesting in the 

 Borough, but even in the Strand and Fleet- street ; 

 but, then, it was obvious, from the dinginess of their 

 aspect, that their feathers partook of the filth of that 

 sooty atmosphere. Martins are, by far, the least 

 agile of the four species ; their wings and tails are 

 short, and, therefore, they are not capable of such 

 surprising turns, and quick and glancing evolutions, 

 as the swallow. Accordingly, they make use of a 

 placid, easy motion, in a middle region of the air, 

 seldom mounting to any great height, and never 

 sweeping along together over the surface of the 

 ground or water. They do not wander far for food, 

 but affect sheltered districts, over some lake, or under 

 some hanging wood, or in some hollow vale, especially 

 in windy weather. They breed the latest of all the 

 swallow kind: in 1772, they had nestlings on to 

 October the twenty-first, and are never without un- 

 fledged young as late as Michaelmas. 



As the summer declines, the congregating flocks 

 increase in numbers daily by the constant accession 

 of the second broods : till at last they swarm in my- 

 riads upon myriads round the villages on the Thames, 

 darkening the face of the sky as they frequent the 

 aits of that river, where they roost. They retire, 

 the bulk of them I mean, in vast flocks together, 

 about the beginning of October ; but have appeared, 

 of late years, in a considerable flight, in this neigh- 

 bourhood, for one day or two, as late as November 

 N 2 



