1 86 HOUSE-MARTIN. 



sarcire ruinas." Thus is instinct a most wonder- 

 fully unequal faculty ; in some instances so much 

 above reason ; in other respects, so far below it ! 

 Martins love to frequent towns, especially if there 

 are great lakes and rivers at hand ; nay, they even 

 affect the close air of London. And I have not 

 only seen them nesting in the Borough, but even 

 in the Strand and Fleet- street ; but then it was 

 obvious, from the dinginess of their aspect, that 

 their feathers partook of the filth of that sooty 

 atmosphere. Martins are by far the least agile 

 of the four species; their wings and tails are 

 short, and therefore they are not capable of such 

 surprising turns, and quick and glancing evolu- 

 tions, as the swallow. Accordingly, they make 

 use of a placid, easy motion in a middle region 

 of the air, seldom mounting to any great height, 

 and never sweeping along together over the 

 surface of the ground or water. They do not 

 wander far for food, but affect sheltered districts, 

 over some lake, or under some hanging wood, or 

 in some hollow vale, especially in windy weather. 

 They breed the latest of all the swallow kind : in 

 1772, they had nestlings on to October the twenty- 

 first, and are never without unfledged young as 

 late as Michaelmas. 



As the summer declines, the congregating 

 flocks increase in numbers daily by the constant 

 succession of the second broods : till at last they 

 swarm in myriads upon myriads round the villages 

 on the Thames, darkening the face of the sky as 

 they frequent the aits of that river, where they 

 roost. They retire, the bulk of them I mean, 

 in vast flocks together, about the beginning of 

 October ; but have appeared, of late years, in a 

 considerable flight in this neighbourhood, for one 

 day or two, as late as November the third and 



