Lhe louse Martin. iO) 
clinging to the same brick, uttering deep twitterings— 
perhaps calling to mind joys of the past. If the House 
Martin has had a nest in any known spot once, and 
reared its young, it is a hard matter to make it for- 
sake the spot, even if its building be destroyed every 
few days, so strong is its attachment to that particular 
place. : 
Like the swallow’s nest, the outside of the Martin’s 
nest is made of mud stuck to small pieces of straw, 
and lined with feathers. Here it lays four or five eggs, 
which are white. This nest in shape would be half- 
oval if the top were not cut off; the entrance is through 
a hole, which space is left in building. The wall of the 
house forms the back of the nest, and the eaves cover 
the top. The young do not leave their home till they 
are fledged and able to hawk for themselves, which they 
do with wonderful quickness, and, with the slightest 
turn of the wing, they glide any way they may desire 
and it is while in these motions they catch their food. 
Without this species of birds we should be under a 
ereat plague, for the number of flies caught by them 
must be very surprising. 
