page_title: Common house martin
section_title: In literature and culture
hierarchical_section_title: Common house martin / In literature and culture
context_page_description: The common house martin, sometimes called the northern house martin or, particularly in Europe, just house martin, is a migratory passerine bird of the swallow family which breeds in Europe, north Africa and across the Palearctic; and winters in sub-Saharan Africa and tropical Asia. It feeds on insects which are caught in flight, and it migrates to climates where flying insects are plentiful. It has a blue head and upperparts, white rump and pure white underparts, and is found in both open country and near human habitation. It is similar in appearance to the two other martin species of the genus Delichon, which are both endemic to eastern and southern Asia. It has two accepted subspecies.
  Both the scientific and colloquial name of the bird are related to its use of human-made structures. It builds a closed cup nest from mud pellets under eaves or similar locations on buildings usually in colonies.
  It is hunted by the Eurasian hobby, and like other birds is affected by internal parasites and external fleas and mites, although its large range and population mean that it is not threatened globally.
context_section_description: This species lacks the wealth of literary references associated with its relative, the barn swallow, although it is possible that some of the older mentions for that bird might equally well refer to the house martin. William Shakespeare was clearly describing the house martin when Banquo brings the nests and birds to the attention of Duncan at Macbeth's castle, Inverness: 
  "This guest of summer,
  The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
  
  By his loved mansionry that the heaven's breath
  
  Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze,
  
  Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
  
  Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle;
  
  Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed
  
  The air is delicate." (Macbeth, Act I, scene VI).
  There are old legends, with no basis in fact, that house martins would wall-up house sparrows by closing the entrance of the mud nest with the intruder inside, or that they would gather en masse to kill a sparrow.
  The martlet, often believed to refer to the house martin, or possibly a swallow, was a heraldic bird with short tufts of feathers in the place of legs. It was the cadency mark of the fourth son of a noble family, and features in many coats of arms, including the Plantagenets. The lack of feet signified its inability to land, which explained its link to a younger son, also landless. It also represented swiftness.
caption: Coat of arms of Richard II featuring five martlets