336 THE MARTIN. 



fed ; the next time it continued abroad longer ; and, at last, 

 went away without ever returning. It ate every thing that 

 was given it, except salad or herbs ; and it was remarkably 

 fond of honey. It was remarked, that it drank often, and 

 often slept for two days together ; and that, in like manner, it 

 was often two or three days without sleeping. Before it went 

 to sleep, it drew itself up into a round, hid its head, and covered 

 it with its tail. When awake it was in continual agitation, 

 and was obliged to be tied up, not less to prevent its attack- 

 ing the poultry, than to hinder it from breaking whatever it 

 came near, by the capricious wildness of its motions. 



The yellow-breasted Martin is much more common in 

 France than in England ; and yet even there this variety is 

 much scarcer than that with the white breast. The latter keeps 

 nearer houses and villages to make its petty ravages among 

 the sheep and the poultry ; the other keeps in the woods, and 

 leads in every respect a savage life, building its nest on the 

 tops of trees, and living upon such animals as are entirely 

 wild like itself. About night-fall it usually quits its solitude 

 to seek its prey, hunts after squirrels, rats and rabbits ; destroys 

 great numbers of birds and their young, takes the eggs from 

 the nest, and often removes them to its own without breaking. 

 The instant the Martin finds itself pursued by dogs, for which 

 purpose there is a peculiar breed, that seem fit for this chase 

 only, it immediately makes to its retreat, which is generally 

 in the hollow of some tree, towards the top, and which it is 

 impossible to come at without cutting it down. Their nest 

 is generally the original tenement of the squirrel, which that 

 little animal bestowed great pains in completing ; but the 

 Martin having killed and dispossessed the little architect, takes 

 possession of it for its own use. enlarges its dimensions, improves 

 the softness of the bed, and in that retreat brings forth its 

 young. Its litter is never above three or four at a time ; they 

 are brought forth with the eyes closed, as in all the rest of this 

 kind, and very soon come to a state of perfection. The dam 

 compensates for her own deficiency of milk, by bringing them 

 eggs and live birds, accustoming them from the beginning to 



