THE HOUSE MARTIN. • 335 



probably* because the eaves project so far that after nine A.M. 

 the nests are in shadow. Moreover, there is a narrow ledge, bare- 

 ly an inch in width, which runs under the eaves, and forms a 

 support for the nests. While the Martins were engaged in bring- 

 ing up their young, I ascended to the nests, and inspected them 

 carefully, much to the indignation of the parent birds, who flew 

 about wildly, darting occasionally out of their nests, and then' 

 stopping short and dashing away over the house. The opening 

 of the nest being close against the eaves, the interior could not be 

 inspected ; but the touch of the finger showed that the walls were 

 tolerably smooth, forming a great contrast with the rough exte- 

 rior. The young birds were quite as much alarmed as their par- 

 ents, and shrank to the very bottom of the nest, where they were 

 quite invisible. 



As to the nests themselves, they are exceedingly irregular on 

 the outside, and look as if they had been made of that preternat- 

 urally ugly substance called " rough-cast," with which the walls 

 of houses are sometimes disfigured. The material of which the 

 Martin makes its nest is said to be the earth that is ejected by 

 worms ; but that this substance does not form the whole of the 

 material is evident from the fact that stones, grass, and feathers 

 are mixed with the mud, together with small twigs and a few fine 

 roots of an iiich or two in length. 



The Martin is a rather ingenious bird, and is always ready to 

 take advantage of any circumstance which may aid it jn building 

 its nest. The inch-wide ledge, for example, which I have just 

 mentioned, has been quite appropriated by Martins, and there is 

 scarcely a part of it which does not bear marks of their labors. 

 At least a dozen nests have been begun and abandoned after a 

 few beakfuls of mud have been put together, probably because 

 the position is so exceedingly advantageous that the birds can 

 scarcely begin in one place without regretting that they have not 

 chosen a neighboring spot. 



There is an interesting account in the " Zoologist" of the unex- 

 pected skill displayed by these birds : " Under the eaves of a 

 house, not so high as to be beyond the reach of any urchin who 

 could procure a rod or fling a stone, a Martin had built its nest, 

 which had more than once been destroyed. There is no doubt 

 that, under ordinary circumstances, these birds would have gone 

 on building their habitation in the same place and manner, if left 

 to themselves and their own resources, although even in such 



