CHELIDON URBICA. 
House-Martin. 
Hirundo urbica, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 98. 
domestica, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Indig. Mamm. and Birds in Coll. Brit. Mus., p. 19. 
sociabilis, Bailly, Orn. de la Savoie, tom. i. p. 268. 
Chelidon urbica, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 550. 
fenestrarum et C. rupestris, Brehm, Vdg. Deutschl., tom. i. p. 140. 
Hirundo (Chelidon') urbica. Keys, und Bias. Wirhelth. Eur., p. 61. 
I KNOW of no group of our native birds the study of which would afford greater pleasure to the young 
student of nature than the family of Hirundines — the Swift, the Swallow, the Sand- and House-Martins — 
each being characterized by a peculiarity in their structure, hahits, and economy, and their modes of incubation 
being strikingly different, as will be seen on reference to my account of the respective species. All these 
birds are associated with summer; for it is at that season alone that they appear among us, gladdening our 
hearts with their presence, and exciting our admiration by their graceful evolutions during flight. 
Occasionally the mead is visited by all the species at the same time ; and it is then that the difference in 
their modes of flight may be observed to the greatest advantage. The bold, sweeping action of the Swift 
enables him to outstrip the others with ease ; the Swallow, with its lengthened tail, makes many rapid and 
graceful turns when engaged in the capture of insects, while the flight of the Sand- and House-Martins, 
though not without many elegant movements, appears to be more laboured ; when thus engaged, the fairy- 
like House-Martin, although shorter and more robust than its congeners, attracts greater attention than either 
of the others, in consequence of the white spot on the rump showing very conspicuously as the bird glides away 
in the distance or glances about in the sun, and presenting a great contrast to the adjoining dark- 
tinted plumage and the water over which the bird may be flying. While it must he conceded that all the 
species evince but little fear of man, the Martin is by far the most familiar of them ; for it apparently loves to 
be among us, and seems to court our intimacy and friendship more than the others. If its neatly built mud 
nest be destroyed, it neither takes offence nor harbours malice, but immediately commences another near the 
same site, or on the other side of the house, but generally at the corner of a window. We may reasonably 
assume that there was a time when there were no houses under which to make its nest, nor man to afford it 
protection, in which case the sides of rocks and shelving cliffs were the places sought for the purposes 
of incubation ; and even at the present day such situations are resorted to ; for Dr. Pei'cy has very kindly 
called my attention to the circumstance of its still building in the rocks of Port Neath, Vaughan, in the vale 
of Neath, his authority for the fact being Mr. Edward Young, a very good observer, who has paid 
considerable attention to natural history. On the other hand, if anew dwelling be erected, far distant 
from other houses, the House-Martin soon appears, and commences building under the newly-formed 
eaves or at the angles of the windows ; at least I observed it so to do at a recently erected residence at Auch- 
nashalloch, in Ross-shire ; and I trust that Mr. Tennent has afforded these welcome strangers a happy home 
during their sojourn in the beautiful valley of the Carron. That the Martin is neither capricious nor 
ungrateful for such protection, I can readily believe ; for, if not overtaken by misfortune during its winter 
residence in foreign climes, the same individual will return to the spot where, the last year, or for years 
before, it had been allowed to remain undisturbed; and, in confirmation of this, I append a note forwarded to 
me by Mr. Philip Crowley, of Alton, in Hampshire, a gentleman fully imbued with a love for nature, and 
intimately acquainted with our native birds. It is dated July 8th, 1852, at which time he was resident at 
Grove House, Tottenham, Middlesex. “ The two Martins I caught, labelled, and set at liberty last year, have 
returned. I tied a small piece of parchment to one leg of each, and wrote on it, ‘ P. Crowley, Alton, Hants, 
England,’ and on the other side of one of them I now find, ‘ Don Vangello, Barcelona.’ ” 
“ That the House-Martin not only visits the same place,” says Captain King, in his ‘ Narrative of a 
Journey to the Shores of the Arctic Regions in 1833-35,’ “ but the same nest year after year, is a fact which 
I ascertained by experiment. While residing in Kent, about ten years ago, having selected a detached tiest, 
I fastened a small piece of silk round one of the legs of its Inmate, then sitting upon eggs. The following- 
season the bird returned, and, with the garter still affixed, was secured in the same nest — a convincing proof 
of the instinctive knowledge attributed to it.” In confirmation of the above statement, Mr. Durham Weir 
informed Macglllivray that he caught several pairs of Martins at the windows of his house in September, 1838, 
and fixed small silver rings round their legs, and that one of them was shot, in his immediate nemhbourhood 
. O * 
the following May. 
