74 BIEDS 



to ferment the draught and to charge the vis inertia with 

 changeful zest and savour. If this brings us a step nearer 

 to comprehending the great mystery of how life has 

 become transfigured " from a monad to a man " it does 

 not lessen our gladness at and reverence for the way it has 

 been done. It has been done by the rich creative power 

 of living organisms themselves, perpetually " rowing 

 against the stream," set poser after poser by the pressure 

 of external circumstance and gallantly solving them. 



What nature aims at is consciousness, the psychical 

 control of matter and her unconscious activities are for 

 ever breaking through into the conscious and economizing 

 bodily functions to prepare the way of the conscious. The 

 process of evolution is electric and dynamic, that is to 

 say, and all things are always on the move, whether down- 

 wards (in some cases) or upwards (in the great majority 

 of them). 



A PAIR OF HOUSE MARTINS AND WHAT THEY 

 ACCOMPLISHED 



Even in the midst of the Education controversy, some 

 of your readers may be interested to hear of a minor 

 controversy which has been taking place between myself 

 and two little High Wycombe workers, namely, a pair 

 of house martins. 



The point in dispute has been the site of their house 

 for this year. A martins' nest has been built immediately 

 over the porch of my house for the last three years, but 

 owing to the litter on the doorstep, I determined this 

 year to prevent its being built, and thought it kinder not 

 to allow the birds to build the whole nest, but to remove 

 the first beginnings, and thus persuade the little creatures 

 to choose in good time another site for their house. I 

 little foresaw the protracted struggle on which I had en- 

 tered, which the following dates will show. On May 13 

 I first noticed that a large piece of the old homestead had 



