9 



busily preening their feathers, keeping up a constant twittering and bathing in the rain- 

 water of the leaden gutters if there should cliance to be any water in them : such 

 assemblages as the above take place annually at Holly Lodge, at Cookham, and generally 

 last for about a fortnight, until, as if by common consent, the birds suddenly disappear 

 and are not seen until the following spring. 



The nest of the Martin is usually placed under the overhanging eaves of houses, but 

 in many parts of Europe it is still a frequenter of rocks, as is shown by the following 

 interesting note in Mr. Henry Seebohm's ' History of British Birds.' He writes : — 

 " There can be little doubt that the Martin pairs for life, and every season returns to its 

 old nest and uses it again. This interesting fact has been proved by marking birds 

 in various ways, and in some instances they have been found in tlieir old haunts the 

 following year. There can be little doubt that the bird formerly used to breed exclu- 

 sively on rocks, and that its habit of frequenting buildings is comparatively only a recent 

 one. Thousands of Martins breed on the limestone rocks in Dovedale and in other parts 

 of the Peak of Derbyshire, at Malm Cove near Settle in Yorkshire, and in many otlier 

 places, especially on the cliffs of the sea-coast at Elamborough and other places in England 

 and Scotland. It frequents alike tlie Avildest portions of the country and the highly 

 cultivated districts, and very often breeds in considerable numbers even in our largest 

 towns. There is a curious nesting-place of this species in the Peak. The stone railway- 

 bridge that spans Monsal Dale is lined with Martins' nests, and the birds seem to be 

 not at all inconvenienced by the passing trains. The nests are built outside the bridge, 

 under the coping which projects over the walls. 



" In the Parnassus they breed both on rocks and on houses. At Castri (the ancient 

 Delphi) the nests of this bird arc common under the eaves of the houses in the village ; and 

 there is a large colony occupying the cliffs, in company with the llock-Sparrow {Passer 

 petronia), in the picturesque gorge from which the famous spring flows. I have also 

 seen other large colonies in the mountain-limestone cliffs at Agoriane and Belitza ; but 

 by far the largest colony I have ever seen is in a romantic glen in the moiuitains over- 

 looking Missolonghi. The rocks overhang very much, and when I was llicre hundreds 

 of nests were to be seen under the overhanging part, whilst outside and in the valley the 

 birds were flying in thousands, like a swarm of bees. In a cleft of the rock, in the midst 

 of the Martins' nests, Avas a huge nest of the White-tailed Eagle, and many of the ]\[artius' 

 nests were in the possession of the Common Ilousc-Sparrow." 



Colonel Irby also remarks that the Martins build on rucks near (iihrallar, like; 

 Bihlis rupestris. Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, too, found them breeding on t he I'aees of the great 

 cliffs on the mountain-sides at Aiuhjrra in the l-]astern Pyrenees, at Canillo on a clill' at 

 5300 feet. Again, in Palestine, Canon Tristram says that th(> spei-ies "reappears in 

 small numbers about the 8th (if Ajiril, and breeds in colonies on th(> shellered clills in 

 the valleys of Xorthern Galilee." 



Another method of incubation is that mentionetl by .M. Cadeau de Kerville. wlio 

 says that in Normandy the nest is sometimes built in the cavity of a wall, I lie birds 



