168 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 



portion during the whole time it was being repaired, 

 without exhibiting any alarm at the unusual proceed- 

 ings. When all was finished, and her young ones 

 restored, she flew around for some minutes, chirping 

 cheerfully all the time, as if expressing her thanks for 

 the kindness shown her. 



The martin is much infested with a very disgusting- 

 looking insect, as large, or larger, than the common bug. 

 I have seen them swarm so thickly on some that the 

 birds were rendered quite incapable of flight. I picked 

 up one in this condition from the gravel walk in my 

 garden. The poor thing manifested no alarm ; but a 

 glance told me the reason of this, as the bugs were creep- 

 ing in and out of its feathers in numbers. I took it to 

 the stream at the bottom of my garden, and got rid of 

 its tormentors in the same way as the fox is reported to 

 do. It seemed really grateful for the assistance, and as 

 soon as the operation was completed flew off with the 

 greatest alacrity. 



The next species, the Sand Martin (H. riparia), is, 

 if possible, more subject still to these insect pests, and it 

 is rather singular that two years after the occurrence I 

 have just mentioned, I found in my garden a sand 

 martin in a precisely similar condition, and freed it in 

 the same manner. I have sometimes found their nests 

 abound with fleas, and this was particularly the case 

 with a group of some twenty nests which had been 

 excavated in the sides of a shallow gravel pit in the 

 forest. The pit was not more than five feet deep on its 

 steepest side, and the holes were formed in a stratum of 

 slightly hardened sand, which was only ten or twelve 

 inches beneath the heather-covered surface of the 

 ground. At least a third of these had been abandoned ; 



