WIIlTE-RUiMPED SWALLOW, 581 



building in the first week of May, but are sometimes much 

 later. On the 3d of June last, a party of six arrived here, and 

 spent the whole day in examining the eaves of the dwelling- 

 house, barns, stables, and granary. The following morning 

 they commenced a general foundation for their three nests, be- 

 neath the water-spout on the back wall of a wing of the house, 

 having an eastern exposure. Each pair worked at a particular 

 part, and before noon it presented one continued line of mud. 

 By the 13th two pairs had left off working, when their nests 

 were nearly half-finished. The only remaining pair brought 

 their labours to a close on the l7th. Suitable materials for the 

 nest are procured from the banks of the pond or the puddle in 

 the lane. If you follow them thither, you will see much to 

 increase your regard for these pretty birds. There they come, 

 sailing placidly over the tree tops ; now they descend so as 

 almost to sweep the surface of the little sandy pool ; some 

 alight, while others suffer themselves to be borne away on 

 the breath of the summer's wind, again to advance and ex- 

 hibit the same beautiful evolutions. When alighted, if the 

 surrounding mud is not suitable, they walk about with short 

 steps, till the object of their visit is obtained, frequently seizing 

 a small piece of straw or grass at the same time. When both 

 are not to be procured at once, they will frequently carry the 

 straw to the mud, temper it well, and then carry off a portion. 

 Let us now follow them to their nest. Seated in the room, 

 you give them no uneasiness. You see that yesterday's work 

 is now dry, and sufficient to allow one bird at a time to perch 

 on it. Still using its tail planted against the wall, or, when the 

 nest is somewhat advanced, against its walls, it deposits the 

 materials by giving its head a rapid wriggling motion, by which 

 means the mud slides gently into the crevices of yesterday's 

 work. It now perhaps retouches the whole of the newly de- 

 posited materials. At particular stages of the work much ma- 

 terial is lost. Not unfrcqucntly will one of the birds arrive 

 with a load, and drive off the other, even before its burden is 

 deposited, and sometimes the worker will snappishly resist, 

 the new-comer will depart and describe several additional turns 

 and windings, for so far as my little experience goes, these birds 

 rarely if ever fly directly to and from the mud-hole and their 



