Martins Nests 137 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE OBCHARD — EMIGRANT MARTINS — THE MISSEL-THRUSH — CARAVAN 

 ROUTE OP BIRDS AND ANIMALS — A POX IN AMBUSH — A SNAKE IN 

 A CLOCK. 



Broad green paths, wide enough for three or four to walk 

 abreast, lead from the garden at Wick into the orchard. 

 On the side next the meadows the orchard is enclosed by 

 a hawthorn hedge, thick from constant cropping ; on the 

 other a solid stone wall, about nine feet high, parts it from 

 the road. One summer day a party of martins attacked 

 this wall outside, and endeavoured to make their nest- 

 holes in it. These birds are called by the labourers ' quar- 

 martins,' because they breed in holes drilled in the face of 

 the sandy precipices of quarries. The boys ' draw ' their 

 nests — climbing up at the risk of their limbs — by insert- 

 ing a long briar, and, when they feel the nest, giving it a 

 twist which causes the hooked prickles of the stick to take 

 firm hold, and the nest is then dragged bodily out. The 

 flight that came to the orchard wall numbered about ten 

 or twelve, and for the best part of the day they remained 

 there, working their very hardest at the mortar between 

 the stones. 



The wall being old, some of the mortar had crumbled 

 —it was not of the best quality — and here and there was 

 a small cavity. These a portion of the birds tried to 

 enlarge, while others boldly laboured in places where no 



