182 HOUSE-MARTIN. 



XVI. 



IN obedience to your injunctions, I sit down to 

 give you some account of the house-martin, or 

 martin ; and, if my monography of this little 

 domestic and familiar bird should happen to meet 

 with your approbation, I may probably soon ex- 

 tend my inquiries to the rest of the British hirun- 

 dines the swallow, the swift, and the bank- 

 martin. 



A few house-martins begin to appear about the 

 1 6th of April ; usually some few days later than 

 the swallow. For some time after they appear, 

 the hirundines in general pay no attention to the 

 business of nidification, but play and sport about, 

 either to recruit from the fatigue of their journey, 

 if they do migrate at all, or else that their blood 

 may recover its true tone and texture, after it has 

 been so long benumbed by the severities of winter. 

 About the middle of May, if the weather be fine, 

 the martin begins to think in earnest of providing 

 a mansion for its family. The crust or shell of 

 this nest seems to be formed of such dirt or loam 

 as comes most readily to hand, and is tempered 

 and wrought together with little bits of broken 

 straws to render it tough and tenacious. As this 

 bird often builds against a perpendicular wall 

 without any projecting ledge under, it requires its 

 utmost efforts to get the first foundation firmly 

 fixed, so that it may safely carry the superstructure. 

 On this occasion the bird not only clings with its 

 claws, but partly supports itself by strongly 

 inclining its tail against the wall, making that a 

 fulcrum ; and thus steadied, it works and plasters 

 the materials into the face of the brick or stone. 

 But then, that this work may not, while it is soft 

 12 



