THE HOUSE-MARTIN 219 



small communities in which they live are much more 

 closely packed together than those of other birds 

 which live in large communities, the rooks, the 

 black-headed gulls, the gannets, the terns, and the 

 sand-martins ; that their nests are miracles of archi- 

 tectural and plastering skill, closely adhering to 

 each other as well as to the overhanging eave 

 which forms their common roof; that a second or 

 even a third row of nests is sometimes found 

 attached to those above, and that there are few 

 prettier sights than to observe the parent bird, steel- 

 blue and brown on its upper parts, pure white 

 beneath, and with its patch of conspicuous white 

 feathers at the base of the tail, clinging on to the 

 outside of its nest, in full view of, perhaps, a 

 crowded street below, and feeding the little white 

 throats, which, crowded together, protrude through 

 the narrow opening, eager, one would think, as 

 much for a breath of air as for a particle of food. 



But the greatest glory of the thatched Rectory- 

 roof was the number of the swifts, the largest, the 

 least common, and, owing to their amazing powers 

 of flight unequalled by any other bird, except the 

 frigate far the most interesting of the swallow tribe. 

 I would explain that I class them here with the 

 swallows, only on the ground of their general habits 



