FECUNDITY. 165 



spring. By means of some agency in the bird-world, corre- 

 sponding, I suppose, to our daily press, they would hear of lovely 

 nesting weather in Derbyshire ; and to me March's promise 

 brought but regrets in May. Even when insectivorous birds 

 were few and far between, nature's providence forbade the laying 

 of a full clutch, clearly evidencing the sparseness of the food- 

 supply. Near Clifton I have often found six Hedge-Sparrows' 

 nests containing the full clutch within the bounds of a single 

 field, without regard to Chiffchaffs and Whitethroats catering for 

 hungry families on very similar lines. 



My favourite authorities would further inform me that the 

 Sand-Martin is accustomed to lay from four to six eggs in its 

 solitary clutch year by year. My notes of expeditions in the 

 south and west confirm this rule, giving five as the common 

 number, and four as the minimum. There rises before my vision 

 a northern colony of this river-haunting bird. I see a miniature 

 amphitheatre of oozing clay, its lofty sides dotted with Irishmen 

 wielding spades and encroaching yet farther on the plateau-like 

 meadow-land above ; where we expect the arena is a loathsome 

 clay-pool, slimy brown and forbidding, destitute of reed or flag. 

 One side of the encircling banks has ended abruptly in a sand- 

 wall, and here the Martins have found a home. The birds are 

 flitting over the clay-pool, actually struggling for each rising fly. 

 The meadows they will resort to towards sunset. The land is 

 too poor to breed the humble fly ; there are on it only the tiny 

 moths which sleep by day among the blades and grass roots. On 

 Aug. 10th, 1896, I examined seventeen nests in such a place as 

 this, and no nest contained more than three eggs or young. 



If we transport ourselves to some shelving sand-bank on some 

 southern stream, we see the Martins flitting about careless of 

 each other's prey. A warmer temperature and the vegetation 

 plenteous in the stream-bed render insect-food abundant, and 

 every tunnel in the wall's face will give to light five or six young 

 Martins before September comes. 



It is a great help in bird study to acquaint oneself with 

 gamekeepers. One vacation I was trespassing, countenanced by 

 the head keeper, and I found two Sparrow-hawks' nests in 

 woods three or four miles apart. Each contained the magnificent 

 clutch of seven eggs, forming a picture none the less delightful 



