Birds. 455 



together. However, upon enquiry, I learned, to my annoyance, 

 that the gardener had displaced the poor bird's domicile, 

 disliking tenants who were not over-cleanly in their occu- 



since writing the above, I have become acquainted with 

 another singular instance of peculiarity in a winged architect, 

 of the same tribe, relative to the position of its nest; and 

 as plain matter of fact from my pen will be more interesting 

 than ill-imagined fiction, I shall forthwith commit it to paper. 

 In the summer of 1830 a pair of swallows commenced their 

 nest upon the crank of a bell wire, in the passage of a farm 

 house at Crux Easton ; the one end of which opened into a 

 little garden, the other into the kitchen, and the door of 

 which, towards the garden, was usually left open. The 

 passage was 15 or 18 ft. in length, and the bell wire nearly at 

 the extremity towards the kitchen. The farmer and his wife 

 were so much pleased with the sociability and confidence of 

 their new inmates, that they not only allowed their muddy 

 domicile to remain unmolested, but were particularly careful 

 that free ingress and egress should be always afforded through 

 the garden door. The nest was completed, and a brood of 

 young swallows reared, which took wing. 



In the autumn of the same year the farmer, returning from 

 shooting, with his gun loaded, thoughtlessly discharged it at 

 a swallow, which he killed. The circumstance passed without 

 comment, until the summer of the following year ; when, from 

 the absence of his old favourites, it occurred to him that the 

 poor bird so wantonly killed must have been one of the pair. 



In the summer of the present year, 1832, a pair of birds, 

 the offspring probably of the former occupants, reared in the 

 passage, were again observed frequenting their old haunt. 

 They first attempted to fix their nest against a cupboard 

 door immediately over the door leading into the kitchen; and 

 the farmer's wife fearing it might be shaken down, from the 

 closing or opening of the door (for it was partly open when 

 the nest was begun), drove a nail beneath, to secure it in its 

 position. However, the swallows did not approve of this 

 interference : they forsook their nest, and commenced a second 

 over the kitchen door ; but this they could not secure. The 

 thought now struck the farmer, that if the nest of 1830, which 

 still remained on the bell wire, were removed, the birds would 

 adopt their old situation. This was accordingly done. The 

 pair immediately profited by the farmer's suggestion ; a nest 

 was completed, and an egg deposited in the short space of 

 four days from the commencement of the new work. While 



