SWALLOWS. 99 



But the fortunes of the swallow in autumn are 

 not always so propitious. I have frequently known 

 broods deserted by the parents in cold and stormy 

 weather. Strange to say, however, this more fre- 

 quently happens with the swift, which makes a 

 shorter sojourn than the swallow, and, as the 

 Laureate observes, 



"The swallow and the swift are near akin." 



I may here state that I had an opportunity of 

 examining the nest of a swift, in which eggs were 

 hatched in four successive seasons, and in every 

 instance the young perished, the old birds departing 

 before their progeny were ready for flight. An 

 alteration in the building afterwards allowed an 

 examination of the nest — I had almost said "family 

 vault" — to be made. It contained skulls, bones, and 

 feathers ; some of the wings and tails of well-grown 

 birds being intact, but quite inoffensive to the smell. 

 Originally the nest had consisted of the feathers of 

 fowls and pheasants, grass, and the sticky or glutin- 

 ous portions of fir-trees, matted to about the thick- 

 ness of half-an-inch. The swift is but a poor archi- 

 tect, the nest being a shapeless ^mass, and in strong 

 contrast to the beautifully-rounded " clay biggin' " of 

 the swallow. This nest was taken possession of by 

 a pair of sparrows whose progeny were more for- 

 tunate than those of the swift, and on whom the 

 remains of the dead swifts seemed to have no 

 injurious effect. 



During the recent outbreak of cholera in Egypt, 

 it was stated in the newspapers that the swallows, 

 as if aware of its api)roach, migrated before it had 

 manifested itself; and, curiously enough, I have 

 heard shepherds and gamekeepers say that the swift, 

 which I do not recollect having seen after the 11th 

 of August, it being averse to the gun, was never to 

 be seen after grouse shooting had commenced. 



These are, doubtless, mere coincidences. That the 

 swift generally leaves for its winter-quarters before 



