FARMERS' REGISTER— NATURAL HISTORY. 



423 



greatest reason to suppose it does these chafers, I 

 no longer wonder at the use of its middle toe, 

 which is curiously furnished with a serrated claw. 



House Martins. 



A few house martins begin to appear about the 

 16th of April ; usually some few days later than 

 the swallow. For some time after they appear, 

 the hirundines in general pay no attention to the 

 business of nidificaiion, but play and sport about, 

 either to recruit from the fatigue of their journey, 

 if they do migrate at all, or else that their blood 

 may recover its true tone and texture after it has 

 been so long benumed by the severities of winter. 



About the middle of May, if the weather be 

 fine, the martin begins to think in earnest of pro- 

 viding a mansion for its family. The crust or 

 shell of this nest seems to be formed of such dirt or 

 loam as comes most readily to hand, and is temper- 

 ed and wrought together with little bits of broken 

 straws to render it tough and tenacious. As this 

 bird often builds against a perpendicular wall with- 

 out any projecting ledge under, it requires its ut- 

 most efforts to get the first foundation firmly fixed, 

 so that it may safely carry the superstructure. On 

 this occasion the bird not only clings with its claws, 

 but partly supports itself by strongly inclining its 

 tail against the wall, making that a fulcrum ; and 

 thus steadied, it works and plasters the materials 

 into the face of the brick or stone. But then, that 

 this work may not, while it is soft and green, pull 

 itself down by its own weight, the provident ar- 

 chitect has prudence and forbearance enough not 

 to advance her work too fast ; but by building only 

 in the morning, and by dedicating the rest of the 

 day to food and amusement, gives it sufficient time 

 to dry and harden . A bout half an inch seems to be a 

 sufficient layer for a day. Thus careful workmen 

 when they build mud walls (informed at first per- 

 haps by this little bird) raise but a moderate layer at 

 a time, and then desist ; lest the work should become 

 top-heavy, and so be ruined by its own weight. 

 By this method, in about ten or twelve days, is 

 formed an hemispheric nest, with a small aperture 

 towards the top, strsng, compact and warm ; and 

 perfectl)' fitted for all the purposes for which itwas 

 intended. But then nothing is more common than 

 for the house-sparrow, as soon as the shell is finish- 

 ed, to seize on it as its own, to eject the owner, and 

 to line it after its own manner. 



After so much labor is bestowed in erecting a 

 mansion, as nature seldom works in vain, martins 

 will breed on for several years together in the same 

 nest, where it happens to be well sheltered and se- 

 cure from the injuries of weather. The shell or 

 crust of the nest is a sort of rustic work, full of 

 knobs and protuberances on the outside ; nor is the 

 inside of those that I have examined smoothed with 

 any exactness at all ; but is rendered soft and 

 warm, and fit for incubation, by a lining of small 

 straws, grasses, and feathers; and sometimes by a 

 bed of moss interwoven with wool. In this nest 

 they tread, or engender, frequently during the 

 time of building ; and the hen lays from three to 

 five white eggs. 



At first, when the young are hatched, and are in 

 a naked and helpless condition, the parent birds, 

 with tender assiduity, carry out what comes away 

 from their young. Was it not for this affectionate 

 cleanliness, the nestlings would soon be burnt up, 

 and destroyed in so deep and hollow a nest, by 



their own caustic excrement. In the quadruped 

 creation, the same neat precaution is made use of; 

 particularly among dogs and cats, where the dams 

 lick away what proceeds from their young. But 

 in birds there seems to be a particular provision, 

 that the dung of nestlings is enveloped in a tough 

 kind of jelly, and therefore is the easier conveyed 

 off without soiling or daubing. Yet, as nature is 

 cleanly in all her ways, the young perform this of- 

 fice tor themselves in a little time, by thrusting 

 their tails out at the aj)erlure of their nest. As 

 the young of small birds presently arrive at their 

 stature, or full growth, they soon become impa- 

 tient of confinement, and sit all day with their 

 heads out at the orifice, where the dams, by cling- 

 ing to the nest, supply them with food from morn- 

 ing to night. For a time the young are fed on 

 the wing by their parents ; but the feat is done by 

 so quick and almost imperceptible a slight, that a 

 person must have attended very exactly to their 

 motions, before he would be able to perceive it. 



As soon as the young are able to shift for them- 

 selves, the dams immediately turn their thoughts 

 to the business of a second brood ; while the first 

 flight, shaken off and rejected b)' their nurses, con- 

 gregate in great flocks, and are the birds that are 

 seen clustering and hovering, on sunny mornings 

 and evenings, round towers and steeples, and on the 

 roofs of churches and houses. These congregatingg 

 usually begin to take place about the first weekm 

 August; and therefore we may conclude that by 

 that time the first flight is pretty well over. The 

 young of this species do not quit their abodes all 

 together; but the more forward birds get abroad 

 some days before the rest. These, approaching 

 the eaves of buildings, and playing about before 

 them, make people think that several old ones at- 

 tend one nest. They are often capricious in fixing 

 on a nesting-place, beginning many edifices, and 

 leaving them unfinished; but when once a nest is 

 completed in a sheltered place, it serve; for seve- 

 ral seasons. Those which breed in a ready finish- 

 ed house, get the start, in hatching, of those that 

 build ne\v, by ten days or a fortnight. 



These industrious artificers are at their labors in 

 the long days before four in the morning: when 

 they fix their materials they plaster them on with 

 their chins, moving their heads with a quick vi- 

 bratory motion. They dip and wash as they fly 

 sometimes in very hot weather, but not so frequent- 

 ly as swallows. It has been observed that martins 

 usually build to a north-east or north-west aspect, 

 that the heat of the sun may not crack and destroy 

 their nests: but instances are also remembered 

 where they bred for many years in vast abun- 

 dance in an hot stifled inn-yard, against a wall 

 facing to the south. 



Birds in general are wise in their choice of situa- 

 tion ; but in this neighborhood, every summer, is 

 seen a strong proof to the contrary at an house 

 without eaves, in an exposed district, where some 

 martins build year by year in the corners of the 

 windows. But, as the corners of these windows 

 (which face to the southeast and southwest,) are 

 too shallow, the nests are washed down every hard 

 rain ; and yet these birds drudge on to no purpose 

 from summer to summer, without changing their 

 aspect or house. It is a piteous sight to see them 

 laboring when half their nest is washed away, and 

 bringing dirt" generis lapsisarcire riiinas." Thus 

 is instinct a most wonderfully unequal faculty ; in 



