160 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



HOUSE MARTIN.* 



HOUSE MARTINS with us appear about a week or 

 ten days after the swallow, but are seldom numerous 

 till the beginning of May. They, however, remain 

 with us later than that species, and are occasionally 

 seen through the first week in November, though 

 the greater part withdraw before that tjme. In the 

 autumn of 184$ they were seen by myself at Cam- 

 bridge as late as the middle of that month. 



Martins love to build under the projecting eaves of 

 my house ; but so abundant are the sparrows in this 

 corn district, that more than half the number of 

 nests are seized, as soon as finished, by these last 

 birds, and adapted to their own use, by a plen- 

 tiful lining of straws and feathers ; the rightful pro- 

 prietors being forcibly expelled. The old line, 



Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves, 



is here true in a more exact sense than the poet 

 contemplated. 



It is principally in June and July, whilst engaged 

 in providing for the first broods, that the martins are 

 annoyed by these besiegers. Nests built in August 

 and September for the later broods generally escape 

 molestation, the sparrows by that time having mostly 

 reared their own young. 



* Hirundo urbica, Linn. 



