168 HOUSE-MAETINS. 



place, beginniBg many edifices, and leaving them unfinished ; 

 but, when once a nest is completed in a sheltered place, it 

 serves for several seasons. Those which breed in a ready- 

 finished house get the start, in hatching, of those that build 

 new, by ten days or a fortnight. These industrious artificers 

 are at their labours in the long days before four in the morn- 

 ing : when they fii their materials, they plaster them on with 

 their chins, moving their heads with a quick vibratory motion. 

 They dip and wash as they fly sometimes, in very hot weather, 

 but not so frequently as swallows. 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 then- 

 nests ; but instances are also remembered where they bred 

 for many years in vast abundance in an hot stifled inn-yard, 

 against a wall facing to the south. 



Birds in general are wise in their choice of situation ; but, 

 in this neighbourhood, every summer, is seen a strong proof 

 to the contrary, at an house without eaves, in an exposed 

 district, where some martins build, year by year, in the 

 corners of the windows. But, as the comers of these win- 

 dows (which face to the south-east and south-west) are too 

 shallow, the nests are washed down every hard raui ; and yet 

 these birds drudge on to no purpose, from summer to sum- 

 mer, without changing their aspect or house. It is a piteous 

 sight to see them labouring when half their nest is washed 

 away, and bringing dixfc "generis lapsi sarcire ruinas." Thus 

 is instinct a most wonderfully unequal faculty; in some 

 instances so much above reason; in other respects, so far 

 below it ! Martins love to frequent towns, especially if there 

 are great lakes and rivers at hand ; nay, they even aflfect the 

 close air of London. And I have not only seen them 

 nesting in the Borough, but even in the Strand and Fleet- 

 street;* but, then, it was obvious, from the dinginess of their 

 aspect, that their feathers partook of the filth of that sooty 



* When the Hudson's Bay Company formed a new settlement in North 

 America, they found the nests of swallows on the faces of the rocky cliffs, 

 near Fort Chepewyan. Soon afterwards the birds built their nests under the 

 eaves of the dwelling-house, which were .about six feet above a balcony that 

 extends the whole length of the building, and is a frequent promenade. They 

 had thus to graze the heads of the passengers on entering their nests, and yet 

 they preferred the dwelling-house to more lofty places. — Dh, Richardson. 



