602 



SWALLOW TRIBE. 



January and February the common Chimney Swallow 

 of Europe has been observed to moult, by Mr. Pearson 

 of London, and Mr. Natterer of Vienna ; with the latter 

 they survived in cages, to which they are easily recon- 

 ciled, for 8 or 9 years, and showed no propensity to tor- 

 pidity. The fleetness with which they move, and the pe- 

 culiarity of their insect fare, are circumstances which 

 would impel a prompt transition to more favorable cli- 

 mates. Accidental fits of torpidity, like those which oc- 

 casionally and transiently take place with the Humming- 

 Bird, have undoubtedly happened to Swallows, without 

 proving any thing against the general migrating instinct 

 of the species. 



Early in May they begin to build, against a beam 

 or rafter, usually in the barn. The external and round- 

 ing shell is made of pellets of mud, tempered with fine 

 hay, and rendered more adhesive by the glutinous sa- 

 liva of the bird ; within is laid a bed of fine hay, and 

 the lining is made of loosely arranged feathers. The 

 eggs are 5, white, spotted over with reddish-brown. 

 They have usually two broods in the season, and the last 

 leave the nest about the first week in August. Twenty 

 or thirty nests may sometimes be seen in the same barn, 

 and two or three in a cluster, where each pursues his 

 busy avocation in the most perfect harmony. When the 

 young are fledged, the parents, by their actions and twit- 

 terings, entice them out of the nest, to exercise their 

 wings within the barn, where they sit in rows amid the 

 timbers of the roof, or huddle closely together in cool or 

 rainy weather for mutual warmth. At length they ven- 

 ture out with their parents, and, incapable of constant ex- 

 ercise, may now be seen on trees, bushes, or fence-rails, 

 near some pond or creek, convenient to their food ; and 

 their diet is disgorged from the stomachs or crops of their 



