OUR WINGED HOUSE-FELLOWS. 



nest door to receive them. They know us 

 individually, and return with punctuality and 

 despatch to their accustomed home each 

 summer. But when strangers stand by, I 

 notice that, though the parent birds dart 

 back to the nest with a mouthful of flies, 

 they do not dare to enter it or to feed their 

 young ; they turn hurriedly on the wing, 

 three inches from the door, with a dis- 

 appointed twitter, a sharp cheep of disgust, 

 and won't return to their crying chicks, 

 which strain their wide mouths and crane 

 their necks to be fed, till the foreign element 

 has been eliminated from the party. 



For myself, I will admit, I just love the 

 house-martins. They may be given to 

 eating flies ; but what of that ? The sky- 

 lark himself Shelley's skylark, Meredith's 

 skylark affects a diet of worms, and nobody 

 thinks one penny the worse of him. Even 

 Juliet, I don't doubt, ate lamb chops like the 

 rest of us. Indeed, it happened to me a 

 few mornings since, during some very hot 



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