86 ANIMALS OF THE 



attacking the poultry, than to hinder it from 

 breaking whatever it came near, by the capri* 

 cious wildness of its motions. 



The yellow-breasted martin is much more com- 

 mon 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 rab- 

 bits ; 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 im- 

 possible 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 hav- 

 ing 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 



* Brooke's Natural History. 



