76 BIBDS 



the heart, which could not resist the appeal of their 

 courageous sticking to their guns in spite of so much dis- 

 couragement. For now at 6 p.m. the walking stick 

 is still in the hall, and I am looking with undisguised 

 admiration at my small assailants busily building ; and I 

 should not be surprised if the martins had their nest for 

 a fourth year over my porch ! 



ALICE A. BOWERS. 



July 7, 1906. 



[Our sympathies are entirely with the house martins. 

 They have clearly established their right to make our 

 correspondent's porch as untidy as they like. ED.] 



NOTE. For my part, I admire Miss Bowers no less 

 than the martins, since she has had the courage to give 

 so very personal a modern rendering of how Saul became 

 Paul. House martins usually add half an inch to the nest 

 every morning to allow the material to harden, and take 

 about a fortnight over the full job. 



CONCERNING SWANS 



For many years a pair of graceful swans have sailed 

 on the lakes in the grounds of Meldrum House, Aberdeen- 

 shire, each like " the swan that sailed on still St. Mary's 

 Lake floated doubly swan and shadow." But the other 

 day the male swan, who was getting lame and evidently 

 feeling the infirmities of age, while sailing with his faith- 

 ful female mate, seized hold of her neck, and held her 

 under the water until she died. Shortly after, he himself 

 was found dead near the same spot, with his long neck 

 and oary feet trailing in the water. 



M. A. 



NOTE. Where is the poet to immortalize the picture 

 and compare it with Ford's Giovanni and Annabella or 

 the Oriental despots whose wives were cast into the flames 



