HOUSE-MARTINS.
[To TER EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—During this summer several house-martins built under the eaves of our house. One fine morning we found three slightly fledged youngsters in the flower-bed below—one nest had given way owing no doubt to the very dry weather. A ladder was procured, the three youngsters were placed in a basket (small "punnet "), and hung up against the wall immediately underneath the site of their old home. Many a time have we sat in the garden and watched the excitement of those little birds, with black caps and ugly faces, like " gnomes," waiting the approach of the parent birds, who fed them regularly. The parent birds would settle on the edge of the basket, feed the youngsters, and then fly away. I never saw the old birds enter the basket to " broodle " their young. The young were left alone at nights. The basket now hangs forlorn; the youngsters flew off some days back.
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