224 ^he Natural History of Se I borne 



business of a second brood ; while the first flight, shaken off 

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

 are the birds that are seen clustering and hovering on sunny 

 mornings 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 there- 

 fore 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 build- 

 ings, 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 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 some- 

 times 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 an house without eaves in an exposed district, 

 where some martins build year by year in the corners of the 

 windows. But, as the corners of these windows (which face 

 to the south-east and south-west) are too shallow, the nests are 

 washed down every bard rain ; and yet these birds drudge on 



1 This is usually due either to hostile demonstrations on the part of 

 sparrows, or to difficulty in making the walls hang together in the particular 

 situation. ED. 



