HOUSE-MARTINS IN TROUBLE. 



141 



" No, dear, but it seems breaking away from the wall. There 

 are young ones in it, and I suppose the old birds did not make 

 it strong enough to hold their weight. I am 

 afraid it will fall down every minute." 



The boys undertook to put matters right, 

 and with the aid of a ladder they climbed up 

 to the nest, and with a hammer and nails 

 they nailed up the nest in a broad piece 

 of flannel. While they were engaged in do- 

 ing this, the martins ceased their cries, as 

 if they knew that a friendly act was being 

 done for them ; and when the boys left the 

 nest the birds returned to it, and by their 

 busy twitterings and short excited flights 

 seemed to wish to express their gratitude. 



Leaving the cottage, they went for a long 

 aimless ramble through the fields and woods, 

 trespassing with impunity, for they were well known every- 

 where, and visiting every hedgerow and copse on the look- 

 out for nests. 



HOUSE-MARTIN. 



SISKIN. 



They came to a field round which there were hedges 

 unusually high and thick for Norfolk, which is a county of trim 

 hedges and clean farming. Almost the first nest they came to 

 was that of a siskin. The old birds to which it belonged were 

 hopping about the hedge. They were pretty lemon-coloured 



