The House-Martin 197 



keeps us in ignorance of its winter home. That it must 

 winter somewhere in Africa can scarcely be doubted, but 

 the only authentic instance of its capture in that continent 

 which has come under my notice, rests on a single 

 specimen in the British Museum obtained in the Northern 

 Transvaal. We may yet find that the winter habitat of the 

 Martin is in the vast regions of the Central Soudan. 



Where encouraged, this little bird becomes very tame 

 and familiar, and I remember a visit I once paid to a well- 

 known lover of the species, Colonel Russell. His house 

 at Stubbers, near Romford, was simply hung with Martins' 

 nests, while a Dove-cot in the neighbouring farm-yard had 

 rows on rows of nests, attached to each other in clusters. 

 My old friend nailed laths to the side of his house, 

 whereon he put a little mud to encourage the birds to 

 commence operations, while clay was regularly brought 

 from a distance of half-a-mile and deposited near a pond, 

 so that the Martins could always depend upon a supply of 

 proper material wherewith to build or repair their nests. 

 So tame were they, that on the clay being moistened 

 with water by their protector, some of the birds would 

 come down to our feet and make off with some nodules. 

 A supply of Ducks' feathers was also kept in a bag, 

 and at a whistle from the Colonel, the birds would fly 

 down at once and seize the feathers in the air, close to 

 our faces, as we sent the plumes floating from a high loft 

 towards the ground. Another peculiarity also possessed 

 by the Colonel was an intense hatred for the common 

 Sparrow, and Passer domesticus was never allowed to chirp 

 within sound of the old house at Stubbers, if he knew it, 

 while it seemed to me that his estimate of his tenants' 

 intelligence was grounded on their discouragement of 

 Sparrows and encouragement of Martins. Certain it is 

 that the Sparrow is a deadly enemy to all Swallows from 

 its usurpation of the nests of the latter, which are so much 



