2OO Summer Studies of Birds and Books CHAP. 



it had then built its nest on houses, I aui 

 certain that he would have recorded the fact. 

 The bird forces itself on the attention of the 

 veriest beginner in ornithology ; and if it had 

 then built on houses in Athens, or Stageirus, or 

 Mitylene, such a man as Aristotle could not have 

 failed to notice it there. And we can hardly 

 conclude that it was not to be found in Greece 

 in his day, for it is common enough there now, 

 building on houses as it does elsewhere. 1 There 

 is but one explanation that occurs to me namely, 

 that the House-martin had not then become a House- 

 martin, but was still a bird of the cliffs and moun- 

 tains, and had not attracted attention sufficiently to 

 get itself distinguished from others which resemble 

 it. And the reason of this is not far to seek ; for the 

 houses of that day were not of a kind to induce the 

 bird to make use of them. The ordinary Greek 

 house was no solid structure of stone ; and the very 

 passage in which Aristotle compares the Swallow's 

 building materials with those which man himself 

 uses is sufficient to show us this. 2 And of nobler 



1 Seebohm, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 181. Mr. Seebohm describes 

 it as also still nesting on cliffs in some places in Greece. 



2 H. A. ix. 7. Curiously enough, he seems to have fancied 

 that in this case the bird learnt from man the art of making 

 mud for building. (For the material of the ordinary Greek 

 house, see article "Domus" in the last edition of Smith's Did. of 

 Antiquities, by Prof. Middleton.) There are several points of 

 great interest in this passage of Aristotle, among which I may 



