548 MARTIN SWALLOW. Class II. 



of the swallow kind that appears in our coun- 

 try. It builds under the eaves of houses, with 

 the same materials, and in the same form as 

 the house swallow, only its nest is covered 

 above, having only a small hole for admittance. 

 We have also seen this species build against 

 the sides of high cliffs over the sea. For the 

 time that the young keep the nest, the old one 

 feeds them, adhering by the claws to the out- 

 side ; but as soon as they quit it, feeds them 

 flying, by a motion quick and almost impercep- 

 tible to those who are not used to observe it. 



It is a later breeder than the preceding by 

 some days ; but both will lay twice in the sea- 

 son, and the latter brood of this species have 

 been observed to come forth so late as the 

 eighteenth of September ; yet that year ( 1 766) 

 they entirely quitted our sight by the fifth of 

 October ; not but they sometimes continue here 

 much later : the martins and red wing thrushes 

 having been seen flying in view on the seventh 

 of November. Nestlings have been remarked 

 in Hampshire as late as the 21st of October, 

 1772. 



In Italy they appear and retire sooner than 

 the chimney-swallows. 



