/ Some Account of the British Song Birds. 413 



Hirundo rustica, Common Chimney Swallow. — This, though 

 rather low on the scale as a vocalist, few will deny but that 

 it is amusing to hear 



" Twittering from his clay-built shed," • 



or while perched on the house top near his nest, especially at 

 early dawn. His song consists of a strain about one minute 

 in continuance, prettily enough modulated, repeated at inter- 

 vals, and always ending with a shrill note, rapidly shaken.' 

 He also sings on the wing in fine weather when the hen sits, 

 seldom after the young are hatched, nor until they are able 

 to fly ; when, congregating on fine evenings, they all join in 

 a joyous twittering chorus, in which the young ones assist. 



The swallow is a companion of man, and one of the most 

 vigilant videttes for the safety of the feathered race. No 

 sooner does a hawk or other bird or beast of prey come in 

 view, than he raises his shrill note of alarm chee chee ; and 

 while almost all other birds, pigeons, poultry, &c., fly or run 

 to covert, the swallow dauntless mounts aloft to meet the foe, 

 menacing and attacking with fury, till he drives the intruder 

 from the neighbourhood. In this attack, the crow only has 

 the courage to assist. I have often noticed that the swallows, 

 on returning from the pursuit, unite in a song of gratulatory 

 exultation. Gnats (CMex pipiens et bifurcatus) are the fa- 

 vourite food of the swallow. In this respect, the latter may 

 be regarded as a friend to man ; not only in tropical countries, 

 but in every place it visits, as the former inflicts the most 

 venomous bite of any British flies. 



The interior ledges which are left by the bricklayers in 

 laying the weather-courses at the tops of chimneys, are the 

 places usually chosen by swallows for nestling in ; but since 

 the introduction of cowls and ornamental chimney-pots, these 

 poor sociable birds have been mostly driven from London, 

 and from every place or house where these ornaments have 

 been put up. The adoption of Grecian facades for town 

 houses, offers some inviting coignes for swallows as well as 

 house martens, if the audacious citizen sparrows would but 

 allow them to keep possession ; but as soon as they have, with 

 much labour, completed their "procreant cradle" they are 

 ti^rned out of house and home by the overbearing cits. Old 

 farm-houses and castellated mansions are now their only 

 haunts. None of the other i/irundines are musical : the 

 house and sand martlets have only faint calls of a note or 

 two, and the shrill swee ree of the swift can hardly be called 

 song. 



hlauda arvensis. — This is a justly celebrated bird of song. 

 Though monotonous, it is cheerful, and imparts a gaiety to 



