PERCHING BIRDS. 167 



over the door or windows, the others being left unmo- 

 lested. The latter were always retenanted in the spring 

 after receiving needful repairs, and new ones would be 

 built on the foundations of the old ones, or occasionally 

 a fresh site would be selected. 



In my notice of the sparrow I have mentioned their 

 fondness for taking possession of a martin's nest during 

 their temporary absence. The martins were always greatly 

 distressed by the aggression, flying wildly to and fro, and 

 by their cries of alarm bringing a large number of their 

 fellows to the rescue ; but no active measures were 

 taken, they contenting themselves by incessantly flying 

 up to the entrance of the nest and giving utterance to 

 their strong indignation which, as a faithful chronicler, 

 I am bound to say appeared to be entirely disregarded 

 by the sparrow. Rarely has a summer passed without 

 this scene being repeated two or three times in the same 

 group of nests ; and being just opposite to my own win- 

 dows, it afforded me a great fund of amusement. 



In 1835 a pair of martins built their nest under the 

 eaves of a house at Sutton, a village a few miles distant ; 

 but during a violent thunderstorm it was partly 

 demolished, and two young unfledged birds fell from it 

 to the ground, but were apparently uninjured. The 

 owner of the house, with great humanity, directed one 

 of his men to procure a, ladder ; a board was placed 

 under the nest, and secured by a couple of iron holdfasts, 

 and the nest was then repaired with clay as well as it 

 could be, a little cotton wool added to make good the 

 lining. When this was done, the two young ones were 

 replaced in the nest ; but the most extraordinary part 

 was that the parent bird, which was in the nest at the 

 time part of it fell, remained sitting in the uninjured 



