MARTIN. 259 



nests then examined, eight of them contained dead young 

 birds, amounting together to nineteen ; and five nests con- 

 tained eggs amounting together to sixteen. Mr. Blackwall 

 mentions having seen a pair of House Martins feeding 

 their unfledged young as late as the 20th of October. 

 Young birds in the nest have been seen also in other parts 

 as late as the 21st and 23rd of October. 



About the middle of October, however, Martins gene- 

 rally leave this country in large flocks, having previously 

 assembled on house-tops, about churches, and lofty trees. 

 White saw a small flock as late as the 3rd of November. 

 A flock of more than one hundred were seen collected at 

 Dover on the 13th of November, 1831, and apparently 

 going off. Montagu, in his Supplement, mentions having 

 seen Martins daily in the neighbourhood of Kingsbridge as 

 late as the 15th of November, in the year 1805. A flock 

 of two hundred were seen at Barnstaple on the 17th of 

 November, 1838 ; and the Rev. W. F. Cornish mentions 

 having seen one, near the cliff, over the brook, at Sid- 

 mouth, in a warm situation fronting the south, so late as 

 the 10th of December, in 1835. 



The Martin is a regular summer visitor to the British 

 Islands, and considerable numbers go annually to Denmark, 

 Sweden, Norway, and the southern part of Lapland. Mr. 

 Lloyd, in his Field Sports of the North of Europe, men- 

 tions that in Lapland he has frequently seen numbers 

 of pots attached to houses, placed there to induce the 

 Martins to build in them, in order to secure the benefit of 

 their services in devouring the musquitoes. The Fabers, 

 and other northern naturalists, include our Martin among 

 the regular summer visitors to the Faroe Islands, and even 

 to Iceland. Pennant says it is common in Siberia, and 

 from thence southward is found in most of the countries 

 visited by the Swallow. On its passage in spring and 



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