before the reft. Thefe approaching the eaves of buildings, and playing
about before them, make people think that feveral old ones
attend one neft. They are often capricious in fixing on a neftiflg-
place, beginning many edifices, and leaving them unfinilhed; but
when once a nefl is completed in a flickered place, it ferves for
feveral feafons. Thofe which breed in a ready finifhed houfe get the
ftart in hatching of thofe that build new by ten days or a fortnight.
Thefe induftrious artificers are at their labours in the long days before
four in the morning : when they fix their materials they plafter
them on with their chins, moving their heads with a quick vibratory
motion. They dip and wafli as they fly fometimes in very hot
weather, but not fo frequently as fwallows. It has been obferved
that martins ufually build to a north-eaft or north-weft afpeft, that
the heat of the fun may not crack and deftroy their nefts: but in-
ftances are alfo remembered where they bred for many years in vaft:
abundance in an hot ftifled inn-yard, againft a wall facing to tire
fouth.
Birds in general are wife in their choice of fituation : but in this
neighbourhood every fummer is feen a ftrong proof to the contrary
at an houfe without eaves in an expofed diftrift, where fome martins
build year by year in the corners of the windows. But, as the
corners of thefe windows (which face to the fouth-eaft and fouth-
weft) are too Ihallow, the nefts are walhed down every hard rain ;
and yet thefe birds drudge on to no purpofe from fummer to
fummer, without changing their afpeft or houfe. It is a piteous
fight to fee them labouring when half their neft is walhed away and
bringing d i r t -----“ generis lapjiJdrcire ruinas” . Thus is inftinft a
(/ moft wonderful unequal faculty; in fome inftances fo much above
reafon, in other refpefts fo far below i t ! Martins love to frequent
towns, efpecially i f there are great lakes and rivers at hand; nay
they even affeft the clofe air of London. And I have not only feen
them netting in the Borough, but even in the Strand and Fleet-Jlreet ;
but then it was obvious from the dinginefs of their afpeft that their
feathers partook of the filth of that footy atmofphere. Martins
are by far the leaf! agile of the four fpecies ; their wings and tails
are Ihort, and therefore they are not capable of fuch furprifing
turns and quick and glancing evolutions as the fwallow. Accord-
ingly they make ufe of a placid eafy motion in a middle region of
the air, feldom mounting to any great height, and never fweeping
long together over the furface of the ground or water. They do
not wander far for food, but affeft Iheltered diftrifts, over fome
lake, or under fome hanging wood, or- in fome hollow vale,
elpecially in windy weather. They breed the lateft of all the
fwallow kind : in 1772 they had neftlings on to OBoher the twenty -
firft, and are never without unfledged young as late as Michaelmas.
As the fummer declines the congregating flocks increafe in numbers
daily by the confiant acceflion of the fécond broods ; till at
laft they fwarm in myriads upon myriads round the villages on the
'Thames, darkening the face of the Iky as they frequent the aits
of that river, where they rooft. They retire, the bulk of them I
mean, in vaft flocks together about the beginning of OBoher : but
have appeared of late years in a confiderable flight in this neighbourhood,
for one day or two, as late as November the third and fixth,
after they were fuppofed to have been gone for more than a fort-
night. They therefore withdraw with us the lateft of any fpecies.
Unlefs thefe birds are very fhort-lived indeed, or unlefs they do not
return to the diftrift where they are bred, they mull undergo vaft
devaftations fome how, and fome where ; for the birds that return
yearly bear no manner of proportion to the birds that retire.
Y Houfe