HOUSE-MARTIN. 183 



overcomes the parental instinct, and the young birds are left to perish in 

 the nest. 



In autumn the gregarious habits of these birds are especially striking, 

 and they may often be seen in large flocks on houses, trees, or tele- 

 graph-wires. As the season advances these flocks increase in numbers, 

 and the birds are far more garrulous than at any other time of the year, 

 as if they were busy preparing for departure. The nests are frequently 

 deserted, and they roost at night in trees and bushes. They take more 

 or less prolonged journeys, and as the eve of their departure draws 

 nigh they congregate in twittering masses on the house-tops. These large 

 flocks, mostly young birds, are the first to migrate southwards, and are 

 afterwards followed by the young of the second brood and their parents, 

 a few stragglers only being left behind, probably weakly birds, or those 

 whose broods are still in the nest. The food of the Martin is composed 

 entirely of insects ; and the refuse of this food, such as wing-cases &c., is 

 cast up in the form of pellets. In June it may often be seen alighting 

 in turnip-fields, for the purpose of feeding on small beetles and flies ; whilst 

 it often catches various insects by hovering above the tall grass-stems and 

 dexterously picking them ofi^. It feeds largely on gnats, which often swarm 

 in clouds over the water. 



The Martin in spring plumage has the head, nape, back, scapulars, and 

 some of the small wing-coverts glossy steel-blue, with greenish and purplish 

 reflections ; the wings and tail are blackish brown, with a greenish tinge ; 

 the tail is considerably forked, but the outermost feathers are not elon- 

 gated like those of the Barn-Swallow j the rump and some of the upper 

 tail-coverts are white, but those next the tail are blackish blue ; the whole 

 of the underparts are pure white. Bill black; legs and feet covered with 

 hair-like white feathers, claws yellowish grey ; irides hazel. The female 

 does not differ in colour or size from the male. Young in first plumage 

 have the dark parts brown, with scarcely any gloss, the white parts tinged 

 with pale brown ; the innermost secondaries are broadly tipped, and most 

 of the quills narrowly margined, with white, and the tail is shorter and not 

 so forked. The pale tips of the innermost secondaries are retained until 

 the second or third moult. The Martin moults in early spring, whilst in 

 its winter-quarters and during its residence in this country no important 

 change takes place in the colour of its plumage. 



