246 CHELIDONES. 



in which they were hatched, and continue the race, after the 

 parents have yielded to casualties or to time. But interesting 

 as are the manners of these birds, though as free as that air 

 over which they have so much command, they are yet so 

 truly domestic that any one can observe them. The nest is 

 more carefully built than that of the swallow; and if the 

 place where it is fixed has not a projecting cover, the nest is 

 made with a dome, and the only opening is in the side. The 

 nest is made large enough to hold both birds, and may be 

 considered in the light both of a house and a nest. The eggs 

 of the house-martin are never more than four or five ; and 

 the birds feed their young with the same assiduity and for 

 the same length of time as the swallows ; and light-coloured 

 ones, and even albinos, occasionally occur as in that species. 

 The flight of the martin, though not so rapid as that of the 

 swallow, is swift, and at the same time easy and graceful. 



The house-martin remains a little later in the country than 

 the swallow; but it retires about the time when the house- 

 flies leave the wing, and crowd in numbers inside the houses. 

 It seems that the house-fly is one of the chief attractions for 

 the bird; and that the instincts of the two are so tempered 

 to each other, that the bird retires while the flies are still 

 sufficiently numerous for producing an abundant supply 

 during the following summer. There are, indeed, enough 

 and to spare in that and all the other races of flies ; for by 

 the time that the summer birds begin to take their departure, 

 the autumnal spiders come into full activity, and capture flies 

 (especially males) by millions. 



THE SAND-MARTIN (UlTUndo 



A figure of this interesting little bird is given on the 

 adjoining cut, on a scale of one-third of the natural lineal 

 dimensions. It is smaller than any of the other British 

 swallows, rather shorter in the wings, and not so dark in 



