8 



Houses built with projecting roofs are soon 

 chosen by the martin. When first Hackney New 

 Church was built, innumerable martins built for 

 several years under its roof; but 6f late their 

 numbers have been less. The common sparrow, 

 fringilla domestic^ frequently occupies, during 

 winter, the nest of the absent martin ; who, re- 

 turning in spring, is forced by actual combat to 

 regain its nest. It is said sometimes to call in 

 the aid of other martins, and to plaster up the 

 nest with mud when the sparrow is in it, and thus 

 smother him. In the year 1800, saw I a contest 

 between a sparrow and a martin, which lasted 

 some hours, under the eaves of a house at Tun- 

 bridge Wells, in Kent. 



agi decent, et foris saturitatem emittere. Alterum genus 

 hirundinum est rusticarum et agrestium, quae raro in domibus, 

 diuersos figura, sed eadem materia, confingunt nidos, totos su- 

 pinos, faucibus porrectis in angustum vtero capaci. H. N. 

 x. 33. 



Sub tectorurn suggrundiis inque fenestris nidificat, non in 

 caminis, nee nidum construit hemisphaericum, et superiore parte 

 totum apertum vt hir. domestica, sed ouatum, superne tectum, 

 rotundo tantum foramine ad latus relicto, per quod ipsa intrat 

 et exit. .Rat? Synop. p. 71. 



