HOUSE-MARTIN. 185 



together ; but the more forward birds get abroad 

 some days before the rest. These, approaching 

 the eaves of buildings, and playing about before 

 them, make people think that several old ones 

 attend one nest. They are often capricious in 

 fixing on a nesting-place, beginning many edifices, 

 and leaving them unfinished; but when once a 

 nest is completed in a sheltered place, it serves for 

 several seasons. Those which breed in a ready- 

 finished house get the start, in hatching, of those 

 that build new, by ten days or a fortnight. These 

 industrious artificers are at their labours in the 

 long days before four in the morning : when they 

 fix their materials they plaster them on with their 

 chins, moving their heads with a quick vibratory 

 motion. They dip and wash as they fly sometimes 

 in very hot weather, but not so frequently as 

 swallows. It has been observed that martins usually 

 build to a north-east or north-west aspect, that 

 the heat of the sun may not crack and destroy 

 their nests : but instances are also remembered 

 where they bred for many years in vast abundance 

 in an hot stifled inn-yard, against a wall facing to 

 the south. 



Birds in general are wise in their choice of 

 situation ; but in this neighbourhood, every 

 summer, is seen a strong proof to the contrary 

 at a house without eaves, in an exposed district, 

 where some martins build year by year in the 

 corners of the windows. But, as the corners of 

 these windows (which face to the south-east and 

 south-west) are too shallow, the nests are washed 

 down every hard rain ; and yet these birds drudge 

 on to no purpose from summer to summer, with- 

 out changing their aspect or house. It is a piteous 

 sight to see them labouring when half their nest 

 is washed away, and bringing dirt " generis lapsi 



