THE HOUSE MARTIN AND SWALLOW. 191 



in bringing up their young, I ascended to the nests, and in- 

 spected them carefully, much to the indignation of the parent 

 birds, who flew about wildly, darting occasionally out of their 

 nests, and then stopping short and dashing away over the 

 house. The opening of the nest being close against the eaves, 

 the interior could not be inspected ; but the touch of the 

 finger showed that the walls were tolerably smooth, forming a 

 great contrast with the rough exterior. The young birds were 

 quite as much alarmed as their parents, and shrank to the very 

 bottom of the nest, where they were quite invisible. 



As to the nests themselves, they are exceedingly irregular on 

 the outside, and look as if they had been made of that preter- 

 naturally ugly substance called ' rough -cast,' with which the 

 walls of houses are sometimes disfigured. The material of 

 which the Martin makes its nests is said to be the earth that 

 is ejected by worms ; but that this substance does not form the 

 whole of the material is evident from the fact that stones, 

 grass, and feathers are mixed with the mud, together with 

 small twigs and a few fine roots of an inch or two in length. 



The Martin is a rather ingenious bird, and is always ready to 

 take advantage of any circumstance which may aid it in build- 

 ing its nest. The inch-wide ledge, for example, which I have 

 just mentioned, has been quite appropriated by Martins, and 

 there is scarcely a part of it which does not bear marks ot 

 their labours. At least a dozen nests have been begun and 

 abandoned after a few beakfuls of mud have been put together, 

 probably because the position is so exceedingly advantageous 

 that the birds can scarcely begin in one place without regretting 

 that they have not chosen a neighbouring spot. 



The common Swallow {Hirundo rustica) also makes a clay- 

 built nest, similar in many respects to that of the martin, but 

 differing in its shape. The nest of the martin is always covered, 

 and entered by an aperture on one side. Mostly it is built 

 immediately under a projecting ledge, which answers the pur 

 pose of a roof, but if no such accommodation can be obtained, 

 it covers in the nest with a dome-like roof The nest of the 



