LIFE-STORY OF THE HOUSE-MARTINS 131 



work to close up the nest's opening. A carpenter 

 who had watched every stage of the eventful story 

 presently examined the nest, and there found the 

 imprisoned hen sparrow dead on her eggs. 



Sometimes the martins are avenged, when their 

 nests have been stolen by sparrows, by the nests 

 giving way under the burden of the material the 

 sparrows stuff in a just retribution for the sparrows ! 



Once the martins begin nesting, they allow them- 

 selves no rest from earliest dawn to deepest dusk. 

 All through the long summer days they are on the 

 wing, feeding their young with never-flagging zeal. 

 One brood succeeds another, until perhaps fifteen of 

 their offspring have been launched on the world, and 

 it will be far into October, even into November, 

 before all the family cares are ended, and the diligent 

 birds may think of setting off for their well-earned 

 winter holiday in sunny Africa. To sit at an upper 

 window where there is a nest and watch the martins 

 as they hawk for food for their young, is to be very 

 deeply impressed by their admirable qualities as 

 parents. 



The number of visits they pay their nestlings in a 

 given hour varies with the time of day, the weather, 

 the age of the young ones, and the available supply of 

 food. On one day it may be found by careful timing 

 that one or other of the parent birds comes back with 

 food for the hungry mouths at home ten times in an 

 hour. Another day, at the same time, perhaps a hay- 

 field has been cut near the garden, and the air above it 

 is alive with the insect life deprived of sanctuary. 

 Then the birds hunt with feverish energy, paying as 

 many as twenty-four visits in an hour, or one visit 

 on the average every two and a half minutes. They 

 come and go with only a moment's delay for stuffing 



