HOUSE MARTIN. 161 



Sept. 3rd, 1829. House martins have a singular 

 practice throughout the breeding-season, and more 

 particularly towards the latter part of it, of flying 

 up against the walls of buildings, just below the 

 eaves, and daubing them with mud, apparently with- 

 out any intention of constructing a nest. Perhaps 

 they do not go twice to the same spot : at any rate, 

 these patches of dirt are not applied with any regu- 

 larity, but may be seen sticking to the brickwork, 

 at intervals of two or more inches all along the front 

 of the building. Just at the present time, my own 

 house has a line of these mud patches carried round 

 nearly three sides of it. I fancy I notice, that the 

 birds are more inclined to this sort of proceeding in 

 some states of weather than others. Occasionally, 

 twenty or thirty martins will be busily engaged in 

 this manner from morning till night, when perhaps, 

 for several days before and after, not one is to be 

 noticed. A damp, cloudy day, especially if also warm, 

 seems to call them most to this employment, during 

 which they appear actuated by some feeling or ex- 

 citement which it is difficult to explain. It is surely 

 something more than an instance of their " caprice 

 in fixing on a nesting-place," (alluded to by White,*) 

 which induces them to "begin many edifices, and 

 leave them unfinished." In the present instance, I 

 suspect they may be the first broods but lately 

 fledged, whose instinct begins to operate and shew 

 itself in this manner before it is wanted. 



We see something analogous to this in the beha- 



* Nat. Hist, of Selborne, Lett. XVI. to D. Barrington. 



