September 



about the old home ! But the work of building or 

 repairing soon claims their attention. Both birds 

 work, each in turn bringing a little pat of mud and 

 fixing it in position by the pressure of its chin. The 

 mud shell thus formed is affixed to the upright, 

 planed surface of the joist supporting the eaves, and 

 is rounded to a rough quarter-sphere, a semicircular 

 opening being left at the top where the shell adjoins 

 the eaves. This opening is, as a rule, at the front 

 of the nest ; but I once found a nest where, owing 

 to lack of depth in the eaves, a front opening would 

 have admitted rain to the nest : the bird therefore 

 wisely constructed its nest with the opening in the 

 corner at the back where the wall and eaves met. 

 It is probably too late to inquire whence man 

 derived his custom of mixing hair with his mortar ; 

 the martins also have this habit. The inside of 

 the nest is lined with fine grass and feathers, and the 

 martin never refuses a feather at any time during the 

 season. 



From the time when the hen bird begins to sit, 

 the everlasting coming and going of the birds from 

 morning till evening continues ; first, when the males 

 feed the nest-ridden hens ; and then, when the latter 

 feed their young. When these young ones appear 

 at the opening of the nest little black-headed 

 creatures with white bibs waiting for supplies, or 

 poking their heads and breasts out to get a view of 

 the wonderful world of the farmyard below, the colony 

 enters upon its most interesting phase. Every second 



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