The Life- Story of the House-Martins 



IN the days when this life-story was written 1773 

 martins, like swallows, must have been far more 

 abundant, and Gilbert White records in another note 

 that he had even seen them nesting in the Strand and 

 in Fleet Street, in London town. What a crowd 

 would be caused in the Strand to-day by the sight of 

 a martin hawking for flies amid the roaring traffic ! 



The house-martin is the swallow with the white 

 rump ; that brilliant white patch on the lower part 

 of the back at once sets him apart from others of his 

 kind. Then he is smaller than the swallow, he has 

 not the same long forked tail, his wings are shorter, 

 and he differs again in having legs covered with soft 

 downy feathers. The under parts are pure white, 

 whereas the swallow wears a beautiful chestnut-brown 

 bib on his throat, and is dullish white beneath. The 

 martin flies with the utmost grace, yet not so speedily 

 as the swallow, or with such marvellous twists and 

 turns. 



Our hordes of sparrows are now more than ever the 

 enemies of the martins, having learnt so well that they 

 can drive martins from their nests ; and sparrows are 

 wonderfully quick at learning, and profiting by ex- 

 perience. Sometimes the martin defeats the enemy 

 by building its nest where sparrows cannot easily 

 land a nest only to be reached by a curving upward 



I 129 



