142 HOUSE-MARTEN. 



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 martens 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 a 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 martens 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 



* A gentleman residing at Blois, in France, on the 14th April, 1831, 

 made the following curious remarks on the building of the marten : A 

 pair of martens commenced making their nest in the deep corner of one 

 of his windows, which, being of French make, frame and all moved inwards 

 every time it was opened. So close did these birds build their nest to 

 the corner, that it became attached to the frame of the window; the 

 nest was consequently carried away every time the window was opened ; 

 but they recommenced building every morning, and so perseveringly did 

 they adhere to the spot, that nothing would make them desist from their 

 fruitless labour, until a piece of paper was nailed up at the corners of the 

 window. When this was done, they removed to the next window, and 

 there, with wonderful sagacity, commenced and carried on the business 

 of building their nest, out of reach of the motion of the window frame. 

 It is surprising to see animals thus exhibit such strong proofs of thought 

 and skill out of the ordinary sphere of their habits. 



Mr Clement Jackson, of East Looe, observed, in the same year, in a 

 cavern near Falmouth, numbers of martens building their nests, and 

 says, the roof was quite studded with them. But what renders the 

 circumstance still more remarkable is, that while these birds colonized in 

 the upper part of the cave, a pair of kestrels had taken up their abode, 

 and were rearing their brood, under a projecting ledge at fche entrance. 

 Neither party seemed to be incommoded by the neighbourhood of the 

 other. ED. 



