150 *** Martins' Nests. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE ORCHARD EMIGRANT MARTINS THE MISSEL- 

 THRUSH CARAVAN ROUTE OF BIRDS AND ANIMALS 



A FOX IN AMBUSH A SNAKE IN A CLOCK. 



BROAD green paths, wide enough for three or four to 

 walk abreast, lead from the garden at Wick into the 

 orchard. On the side next the meadows the orchard 

 is enclosed by a hawthorn hedge, thick from constant 

 cropping ; on the other a solid stone wall, about nine 

 feet high, parts it from the road. One summer day 

 a party of martins attacked this wall outside, and 

 endeavored to make their nest-holes in it. These 

 birds are called by the laborers ' quar-martins,' be- 

 cause they breed in holes drilled in the face of the 

 sandy precipices of quarries. The boys ' draw ' their 

 nests climbing up at the risk of their limbs by 

 inserting a long briar, and, when they feel the nest, 

 giving it a twist which causes the hooked prickles of 

 the stick to take firm hold, and the nest is then 

 dragged bodily out. The flight that came to the 

 orchard wall numbered about ten or twelve, and for 

 the best part of the day they remained there, working 

 their very hardest at the mortar between the stones. 



The wall being old, some of the mortar had 

 crumbled it was not of the best quality and here 

 and there was a small cavity. These a portion of the 



