566 HIRUNDO RUSTICA, 



tica, and urbica, make their appearance ; the first generally by 

 the 9th, while the Cypselus Apus seldom arrives till the end 

 of the month. By the beginning of October they take their 

 departure." In the south of England it sometimes makes its 

 appearance as early as the first week of April, but generally 

 about the middle of that month. " It sometimes happens," 

 says Montagu, " that after their arrival, a long easterly wind 

 prevails, which so benumbs the insect tribe, that thousands die 

 for want of food. We recollect as late as the 9th of May, the 

 Swallows on a sudden disappeared from all the neighbouring 

 villages around. The thermometer was at 42, and we were at 

 a loss to conceive what was become of these birds, which a day 

 or two before were seen in abundance. But by chance we 

 discovered hundreds collected together in a valley close to the 

 sea side, at a large pool which was well sheltered. Here they 

 seem to have found some species of fly, though scarce sufficient 

 to support life ; for many were so exhausted that after a short 

 time on wing they were obliged to pitch on the sandy shore." 



In a sheltered hollow at Colt Bridge, about a mile from 

 Edinburgh, in cold seasons, the Swallows often remain a week 

 or more after their arrival, when scarcely an individual is to be 

 seen in any other place in the vicinity. 



It is not until a considerable time after their arrival that they 

 begin to construct their nests, which they generally place, not 

 usually in chimneys, as is alleged, but under the eaves of out- 

 houses, and on beams or rafters within them, when free admis- 

 sion is obtained, sometimes also in the corners of windows, and 

 even on the face of rocks, in qviarries, or on the sides of a well 

 or the shaft of a deserted coal-pit. " Here and there," says 

 White, " a bird may affect some odd, peculiar place; as we have 

 known a swallow build down the shal^t of an old well, through 

 which chalk had been formerly drawn up for the purpose of 

 manure ; but, in general, with us this hirundo breeds in chim- 

 neys, and loves to haunt those stacks where there is a constant 

 fire, no doubt for the sake of warmth. Not that it can subsist 

 in the immediate shaft where there is a fire : but prefers one 

 adjoining to that of the kitchen, and disregards the perpetual 

 smoke of that funnel, as I have often observed with some degree 



