MAY. 87 



and grapple, and fall. How the long fight ended it 

 is impossible to say, for house-martins are so alike 

 that one cannot guess whether the pair now in 

 triumphant possession are the first-comers or the 

 original owners. The incident shows, however, that 

 those who wish house-martins to dwell in peace and 

 multiply under their roof-ledges, should take the pre- 

 caution in winter to break out the floor of all the 

 temporarily abandoned nests. These are then of no 

 use to the sparrows, and when the martins return, 

 each comes easily into possession of its own. On the 

 third day so many more arrived that, barring later 

 accidents, the colony should be even larger this 

 summer than it was last year. 



THE LAST OF THE MIGRANTS. 



The 2 5th, 26th, and 2/th of May practically 

 brought the immigration of summer birds to an end, 

 for the strong south-west winds carried not only 

 the delayed house-martins, but also the butcher-birds 

 and fly-catchers always the last to arrive to the 

 furthest corners of the East Coast. They appear 

 to have carried away, too, the last of the lingering 

 fieldfares, most reluctant of all our winter visitors to 

 risk crossing the sea unless all the circumstances are 

 favourable. With their departure, and the arrival of 

 the fly-catchers it is only on rare occasions that 

 these birds meet on English soil we may be said 

 to have settled down for the summer. Indeed, the 

 presence of the fly-catcher makes in itself one of the 

 most reliable signs that summer has really arrived, 

 because its food consists of summer insects, and it 



