SWALLOW AND HOUSE-MARTIN 



aged, they yield themselves, MM! go. Next moment they are in pos- 

 session of a new power and of a new world, with its myriad wonders. 

 But matters do not always pass thus. Moral persuasion may fail, or 

 the temper of the parents may fail; then the offender max In- hulled 

 and pulled. Weir, quoted by Macgillivrny, states that he once saw 

 an angry mother house-martin approach an over-cautious fledgling, 

 and just when it opened its beak in the mistaken expectation of 

 fbod, seize it by the lower mandible with the claw of her right foot, 

 and "use all her efforts to pull it out of the hole." She did not 

 succeed, and no doubt made matters worse, patience being the first 

 principle of pedagogics in the educational systems both of men and 

 mice and martini. 



The young birds continue to be fed by the parents after they have 

 left the nest, tad receive their food either perched on a bough, roof, 

 telegraph wire, or other suitable place, or else in the air itself. When 

 the latter, old and young bird rush together and hover breast to 

 breast, their beaks meet as for a kiss, they part, and the dainty aerial 

 meal is over. 



How long this state of dependence upon the parents lasts has not 

 yet been ascertained with any certainty. It is brought to a close by 

 the preparation for the second brood, at least as far as the hen-bird is 

 concerned. The cock may possibly feed the first brood more or less 

 irregularly until the second brood claims the whole of his attention. 

 According to Mr. H. E. Forrest, young martins of the first brood may 

 then occasionally be seen helping to feed the second brood, and even 

 helping to build a new nest, if that in which they were born falls 

 down. 1 When not destroyed, the old nest is generally used, frequently 

 two or three old swallows' nests are used in turn by the same pair. 2 

 The swallows, however, whose domestic experiences were described on 

 pages 29K-299, built a second nest on their nesting-board. It took only 

 seven days to build, but the workmanship was not up to the standard 



1 Fauna of North Wain, p. 137. 

 F. O. R. Join-data (m ///.. 



