THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 393 



some distance to feed. I saw many, early this evening, about 

 little bays of the lake, and believed them to belong to the Toome 

 bridge colony. After the martins had retired to roost, a few swifts 

 continued flying above the bridge, in the neighbourhood of which 

 only, they were before observed. On the following morning, a 

 sand-martin appeared at the bridge with its congeners. Not a 

 swallow (H. rustica) was seen there during the three days. 



Houses are however, the best known building places of tins 

 species. 



White, in the sixteenth letter of his Natural History of Selborne, says : — " It has 

 been observed that martins 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." On this subject the following note was 

 made on the 15th of July, 1832: — I this day observed twelve or thirteen nests of 

 the Hirundo urbica built against a two-story house at Wolf-hill. These were all on 

 the north-west side or front, excepting one, which was at the north-east corner. The 

 other two sides of this house have iu part a southerly exposure (S.W. and S.E.), and 

 being fenced in, are consequently more private. A road passes those preferred by 

 the martin : — on every side the facilities for its building operations are the same. In 

 front of a thatched cottage not more than eight feet high, which is not only at the 

 side of the highway, but constantly resorted to as a public-house, I remarked several 

 nests of the martin. In the rear of this cottage, which is fenced off from the road, 

 and its walls (from the building being on the side of a hill) considerably higher than 

 in front, none of the nests appear. Some years ago a few pair built annually in front 

 of the dwelling-house at Wolf-hill, but not more than a single pair occupied either 

 gable. Nests were also displayed in considerable numbers in front of two lofty 

 four-story houses in Belfast. Judging from the situations selected by the martin for 

 its nests on these five houses (the three first mentioned being only a few hundred 

 yards apart), it would seem that the bird is more influenced by the front of a house 

 than by aspect ; as the first faces the north-west, the second and third the south- 

 east, and the fourth and fifth the south: In innumerable other instances, I have re- 

 marked that where facilities for building are s imil ar on all sides of the house, the front 

 was thus preferred by the martin, although the nests were opposite every point of 

 the compass. This is particularly apparent in houses situated in streets which inter- 

 sect each other at right angles. The aspect of the cliffs before mentioned, as being 

 tenanted by the martin, is as different as that of the houses. One reason for the 

 fronts of houses being thus preferred (in the instances mentioned, the low cottage 

 and the four-story house are equally so,) is probably, on account of the more open 

 space in front allowing of a freer range of flight to and from the nest. The following 

 was noted as a striking instance to the same effect. It refers to Hever Castle, in 

 Kent, a square building, fronting the south, well known historically in connection with 

 Henry the Eighth, and Anne Boleyn: — When there in October, 1847, I remarked 



