THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 
393 
some distance to feed. I saw many, early this evening, about 
little bays of the lake, and believed them to belong to the Toome 
bridge colony. After the martins had retired to roost, a few swifts 
continued flying above the bridge, in the neighbourhood of which 
only, they were before observed. On the following morning, a 
sand-martin appeared at the bridge with its congeners. Not a 
swallow {II. rustica) was seen there during the three days. 
Houses are however, the best known building places of this 
species. 
White, in the sixteenth letter of his Natural History of Selhorne, says : — “ 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 their nests ; but instances are also 
remembered where they bred for many years in vast abundance in a hot, stifled inn- 
yard, against a wall facing to the south.” On this subject the following note was 
made on the 15th of July, 1832 : — I this day observed twelve or thirteen nests of 
the Hirundo urbica built against a two-story house at Wolf-hill. These were all on 
the north-west side or front, excepting one, which was at the north-east comer. The 
other two sides of this house have in part a southerly exposure (S.W. and S.E.), and 
being fenced in, are consequently more private. A road passes those preferred by 
the martin : — on every side the facilities for its building operations are the same. In 
front of a thatched cottage not more than eight feet high, which is not only at the 
side of the highway, but constantly resorted to as a public-house, I remarked several 
nests of the martin. In the rear of this cottage, which is fenced off from the road, 
and its walls (from the building being on the side of a hill) considerably higher than 
in front, none of the nests appear. Some years ago a few pair built annually in front 
of the dwelling-house at Wolf-hill, but not more than a single pair occupied either 
gable. Nests were also displayed in considerable numbers in front of two lofty 
four-story houses in Belfast. Judging from the situations selected by the martin for 
its nests on these five houses (the three first mentioned being only a few hundred 
yards apart), it would seem that the bird is more influenced by the front of a house 
than by aspect ; as the first faces the north-west, the second and third the south- 
east, and the fourth and fifth the south: In innumerable other instances, I have re- 
marked that where facilities for building are similar on all sides of the house, the front 
was thus preferred by the martin, although the nests were opposite every point of 
the compass. This is particularly apparent in houses situated in streets which inter- 
sect each other at right angles. The aspect of the cliffs before mentioned, as being 
tenanted by the martin, is as different as that of the houses. One reason for the 
fronts of houses being thus preferred (in the instances mentioned, the low cottage 
and the four-story house are equally so,) is probably, on account of the more open 
space in front allowing of a freer range of flight to and from the nest. The following 
was noted as a striking instance to the same effect. It refers to Hever Castle, in 
Kent, a square building, fronting the south, well known historically in connection with 
Henry the Eighth, and Anne Boleyn : — When there in October, 1847, I remarked 
