SWALLOW AND HOUSE-MARTIN 



ha\c driven him from the village, darting down from alo\c on his 

 hack, and rising in a perpendicular line in perfect security. This bird 

 also will sound the alarm, and strike at cats when they climb on the 

 roofs of houses, or otherwise approach the nests." One pair, whose 

 nest I visited twice only, would, when they saw me about, even after 



da\-. s\\oop d<)\\ii upuii MM . :i- tin > li<l II|MMI tlir cats, pass in- \\itli ;i 



shrill double note close to my head, so as to give me the wind of their 

 pinions. 



According to Naumann, who had far better opportunities of 

 studying hawks than we have at present in this game-stricken 

 country, tliOM are only two from which swallows and martins have 

 much to fear the merlin and hobby, particularly the latter. While 

 they are ready to follow and ham- others, these till them with dread, 

 and they are frequently caught, the swallow less easily than the 

 martin. The latter in its terror sometimes falls to the ground, when 

 pounced upon, though untouched. Naumann states that he often 

 picked up such birds, found them quite uninjured, and, when they 

 had recovered consciousness, saw them quit his hand to fly off' active 

 and swift as ever. He never noticed this in the case of swallows.' 



That the mortality among swallows and martins must be very 

 great is evident from the fact that their numbers remain on the 

 average stationary. Large numbers perish on migration. Thousands, 

 if not hundreds of thousands, are slaughtered for the S. European 

 markets as they pass on their journey. Many more perish in sudden 

 gales of wind or rain as they cross the Mediterranean, unless 

 fortunate enough to meet with a ship on which to rest 1 Even then 

 they are not always safe, as the following incident will show. Some 

 exhausted swallows had alighted on a ship off Crete, and with them 

 three or four woodchat-shrikes. One of the latter, after eyeing a 

 swallow for a few moments, sidled up, and suddenly pouncing upon 

 it, the two fluttered to the deck. There the shrike hammered in the 



Miltelfuropa*, IT. 100, 200, 200. 

 ' For full detail* on this point Me Britinh Birds, iii 188 (H. LyneiX 



