152 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



Robin does to the winter. When we see the first 

 little visitor of this species does it not fill our hearts 

 with a sort of thankfulness that the treacherous 

 spring months are pretty well behind us, and that 

 summer is not far off — for I think I might safely 

 say that the advent of the Swallow means the 

 arrival of the summer. And what graceful little 

 birds Swallows are as they glide swiftly along, 

 sometimes so low over the orreen meadow as to 

 touch the orass, or, aoain, over calm sheets of water, 

 hovering, dipping, gently touching as they skim 

 alono- ; or when soarino- hig-h and circling^ in the air 

 or round the edges of woods, wherever they find 

 insect life to be most in evidence ! Who has 

 watched their aerial evolutions and not been struck 

 by them ? The Swallow, too, is a bird of a very 

 domestic habit, preferring the precincts of old farm 

 buildings, country houses with their park-enclosures, 

 the vicinity of villages, in fact all places where 

 human habitations exist. The species is well 

 distributed over our islands, arriving on our south 

 coast about the middle of April, thence ex- 

 tending itself northwards. It generally brings up 

 two broods. The most favoured nesting-site is on 

 rafters or projections in farm buildings and out- 

 houses, or, in fact, any human habitation, though 

 chimneys are sometimes selected ; the nest is 

 composed of mud and straw, and what makes it so 

 adhesive is, I believe, the saliva from the bird's 

 mouth. The eggs — four to six in number, are 

 usually white, spotted with brown. 



