SWALLOW AND HOUSE-MARTIN 



had boon definitely abandoned by tho colony to which tin- mark* d 

 bird belonged, owing to the nests having been .swept away by a storm, 

 but in a noighbouring stable, a little over a hundred yards away. 

 Urn tin- l.iitl and it* follow .s had no douU reported after the disaster 

 to their nests. 1 



In their choice of nesting sites the two species differ, and, 

 speaking generally, the difference is well expressed by two of the 

 pnpnhr names given them by the Germans, by whom the swallow is 

 sometimes known as the innere J/aiuttcfwUbc, or " inside-swallow,* 1 and 

 the house-martin, the austere HmHBtchwnUm, or " outside-swallow." The 

 former usually builds on beams or ledges inside barns, sheds, other 

 outbuildings, and in porches, down chimneys, under bridges, and in 

 similar situations ; the latter outside, under the eaves of houses or on 

 the face of cliffs and quarries. It is said that the original nesting- 

 place of swallows was in the semi-darkness of caves. If so, its prefer- 

 ence for places uruler a roof is easy to understand. There can l>e 

 little doubt that the original nesting-place of the house-martin was on 

 the face of cliffs. There its nests are still frequently to be found, 

 much more often indeed than is commonly supposed. Large colonies 

 occur nearly all round the coasts of the British Isles, and inland on 

 such placet as Kilnsey Crag, Yorkshire. 2 A cliff-colony and a house- 

 colony may be found close together, as at Canty Bay, near North 

 Berwick, where only a few hundred yards separate the colony at the 

 hotel from that building on the face of the rock where stand the 

 ruins of Tantallon Castle. When building on the face of rocks, 

 the house-martin places his nest not on but under a ledge, so that 

 it cannot be washed down. For the same reason he chooses to build 



1 British Birds, ill. 200 (A. L. Thomson). For additional evidence in the CAM of the hoiwe- 

 niartin see Macgilli vray , History of hints, iii. 502 (return of a bird which had had silk tied to it* 

 leg) ; Nelson, Birds of Yorkshire, p. 100 (pair ringed in 1893 observed In name place in following 

 two summers) ; Zoologist, 1805, 440 (ringed birds returning to the same neat). See also the Fit-Id. 

 1870, Sept. 80 ; /bid, 1881, June 4 ; Ibid., 1808, July 1. For the swallow, see Fitld, 1881, ivii. 785 

 (return of a pair ringed with bran win); British Birds, iii. aOO (record by C. B. Ticehunit of 

 return of ringed adult) ; Aquila, 1010, 87 (record by Schenk of return of ringed adult*, and of 

 three young birds of the previous year returning to their birthplace, two nesting). Another 

 CH-.- i- -;ip|. !..! :,., i. , Alx-nlft-ii |',n ,| mik'nit i, m Ini|iiir> "la -u:illnu riivu-l in :u Tuiiln I'U'r 

 Wells in June 1000, and ret-aught at the same place in June 1010. ' See Plato xxx i. 



VOL. II. 2p 



