THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 245 



till the labour of the season is over, and the time of its 

 departure come. 



THE HOUSE-MARTIN (HlTUndo 



The house-martin is one of those creatures which associate 

 with man, claim the shelter of his dwelling, and for that 

 purpose hunt him out in all quarters of the world, and in 

 every latitude, if the places which he chooses will at all 

 afford a supply of food for the martin and its young. 



There is not so much romance, or, if you will, sublimity, 

 about the martin, as there is about the swallow. The wings 

 are shorter in proportion to its weight, and it wants those 

 singularly produced feathers in the forky tail, which enable 

 the swallow to wheel round about upon its centre of gravity, 

 and to turn here, there, and everywhere, without almost any 

 perceptible effort. But the martin is a prettier bird, more 

 contrasted and more lively in its colours ; and its coming to 

 nestle in the windows (often the very identical bird for a 

 series of years), renders it still more a favourite. Black and 

 white are the colours of the house-martin ; the whole of the 

 upper part, except the rump, black, and all the under part 

 white. The tail, which is forked and very stiff at the tip, 

 and the quills and coverts, are brownish black, and the rest 

 of the black part has a trace of blue. The line of separation 

 between the white and black, on the sides of the neck, is 

 finely broken, and the richest blue reflections are close by it. 

 The tarsi and toes are covered with white down. The female 

 has the breast inclining to grey. 



The martins arrive in Britain a few days before the chimney 

 swallows ; and, like them, they appear first in the warmest 

 parts of the country, but they soon distribute themselves 

 over the whole of the low grounds, and probably each returns 

 to the place of its nativity, to nestle in the neighbourhood, 

 and hunt in the society of its parents, or to repair the nest 



