HIRUNDINID^E. 



and is accordingly a constant and numerous summer 

 visitor to the " summer county," arriving about the 

 same time as the Swallow, Yarrell says a few days 

 later, and this appears to me to be the case, but 

 there is very little difference, and departing also 

 about the same time. There is one very late in- 

 stance of the stay of this bird recorded in the ' Zoolo- 

 gist' as late as the 10th of December:* several 

 other instances of late stay are recorded, but this is 

 the latest I can find. 



The food of the Martin, like that of the Swallow, 

 consists entirely of insects, which it takes on the 

 wing in the same manner as that bird. 



The nest is made of mud, and is usually fixed 

 against the side of a house, or some other building, 

 immediately beneath the roof or coping, or some 

 projecting "jutty frieze or coign of vantage." 

 Whole colonies of nests may be seen on the cliffs 

 by the sea- side, some overhanging portion of rock 

 being taken advantage of, immediately underneath 

 which the nest is usually fixed : in such places as 

 these I have watched them, in considerable num- 

 bers, especially at Teignmouth, feeding their 

 young, as late in the year as September: these, 

 therefore, must have been second or even third 

 broods, and the young can only be just able to fly 

 when they have to begin their migratory journey. 



* ' Zoologist' for 1866 (Second Series, p. 172). 



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