Chimney Swallow 271 



remarks another, ' ' the swallow either beginning or re- 

 pairing her nest, which is a structure entirely different 

 from all others. She wants neither wood, nor hay, nor 

 bands, but knows how to make a kind of plaster, or rather 

 cement, with which she erects a dwelling equally secure 

 and convenient for herself and all her family. She has 

 no vessel to receive the water she uses, nor a barrow to 

 convey her sand, nor a shovel to mix her mortar ; but I 

 have seen her pass and repass over the basin in the 

 parterre ; she raises her wings, and wets her breast on 

 the surface of the water, after which she sheds the dew 

 over the dust, and then tempers and works it up with her 

 bill." Pliny says very tersely, ' ' Surely in no one thing 

 is the will of sillie birds more admirable. The swallows 

 frame their nests of clay and earth, but they strengthen 

 and make them fast with straw. In case at any time 

 they cannot meet with soft and tough clay, for want 

 thereof they drench and wet their feathers with good 

 store of water, and then bestrew them over with dust." 

 However plausible these several modes of making building 

 mortar may appear, we have no hesitation in pronouncing 

 them to be altogether fabulous. Swallows, may be fre- 

 quently seen both drinking and washing on the wing, and 

 also collecting mud from cart-ruts and other places. 

 But they never carry water in their bills, or on their 

 feathers. They are incapable of performing either 

 operation ; for they want the necessary muscles to carry 

 water in their mouths, as we can do, and whatever water 

 might adhere to their feathers would be instantly shaken 

 off in flying, for according to minute observation, it runs 

 off from them as it does from the feathers of ducks and 

 other water fowl. Besides, their inability to find materials 

 sufficiently moist is a supposition altogether improbable, 

 with respect to a bird of such powerful wing, whose flight 

 is so excursive, and usually in the vicinity of water. 



The natural conclusion is, that the swallows employ 

 some salivary fluid besides the water which may be in the 

 mud. 



Anatomical examination confirms the fact that the 



