54 IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN 



they seem to stretch away for miles in long 

 lines on the telegraph wires. 



Swallows and wagtails apparently grudge 

 one another (and flycatchers) a share in their 

 insect sporting rights, if their mutual spite- 

 fulness has any meaning. This common 

 taste for the same kind of food often brings 

 the three into close quarters, and it is curious 

 to notice the different methods they use to 

 compass the same end; the swallow cease- 

 lessly rushing at full speed through the air, 

 the wagtail trusting to his nimbleness of foot, 

 and the flycatcher making a series of little 

 excursions upwards after his prey. I have 

 seen swallows walking about on the grass and 

 picking up flies, and when their young ones 

 are resting on the ground they will often 

 bring them food there, alighting by the side 

 first of one and then of another. 



Ten years ago it was only on two or three 

 houses in the village that house-martins 

 built, and they were seldom seen except in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of these, but 

 now (1911) they have become comparatively 

 abundant everywhere. The wooden hay- 

 sheds recently put up at many of the farms 

 seem to have attracted them in the first 

 instance, but when once they were led to look 

 more closely into the matter they evidently 

 found that there were many more eligible 

 building sites in Warburton than they had 

 had any idea of before. They have never 



