IV.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



149 



and rejected by their nurses, congregate in great flocks, and are 

 the birds that are seen clustering and hovering on sunny morn- 

 ings and evenings round towers and steeples, and on the roofs 

 of churches and houses. These congregatings usually begin to 

 take place about the first week in August; and therefore we 

 may conclude that by that time the first flight is pretty well 

 over. The young of this species do not quit their abodes all 

 together ; but the more forward birds get abroad some days 

 before the rest. These approaching the eaves of buildings, and 

 playing about before them, make people think that several old 

 ones attend one nest. They are often capricious in fixing on 

 a nesting-place, beginning many edifices, and leaving them 

 unfinished ; but when once a nest is completed in a sheltered 

 place, it serves for several seasons. Those which breed in a 



o 



HOL'SE-MAkTl.N S E(;ii. 



ready-finished house get the start in hatching of those that build 

 new by ten days or a fortnight. These industrious artificers 

 are at their labours in the long days before four in the morning : 

 when they fix their materials they plaster them on with their 

 chins, moving their heads with a quick vibratory motion. They 

 dip and wash as they fly sometimes in very hot weather, but 

 not so frequently as swallows. It has been observed that 

 martins usually build to a north-east or north-west aspect, 

 that the heat of the sun may not crack and destroy their nests ; 

 but instances are also remembered where they bred for many 

 years in vast abundance in a hot stifled inn-yard, against a wall 

 facing to the south. 



Birds in general are wise in their choice of situation ; but in 

 this neighbourhood every summer is seen a strong proof to the 

 contrary at a house without eaves in an exposed district, where 

 some martins build year by year in the corners of the windows. 

 But as the comers of these windows (which face to the south- 





