30 THE USEFUL BIRDS 



cases iicitiire favoured the depositing of two eggs only to the 

 clutch. Of eighteen nests personally observed five contained 

 each three eggs, eleven contained each two eggs, two contained 

 each one egg. The young generally were well advanced in the 

 eggs. Other nests observed by myself e^ch contained two 

 full-feathered young only. 



Like many other birds, the Masked Wood-Swallow resents 

 the approach of an enemy near its nest, and angrily and 

 boldly attacks all intruders. The female bird, perhaps, is 

 rather more retiring _than the male, who darts at one per- 

 sistently while in the vicinity of the nest. 



One Christmas Eve I observed that two young were about 

 to fly from a nest built in an odd-looking piece of dead timber 

 near the ground, which I had watched for eight days pre- 

 viously. One would serve as a cabinet representative speci- 

 men, so I withdrew it at 7 p.m. For an hour and a quarter 

 I remained fifty yards aw^ay, watching other birds, and 

 returning at the end of that time I found the parents had 

 removed the remaining young Swallow, probably for preserva- 

 tion sake. 



Meanwhile I had extracted three fresh eggs (the third one 

 laid the day previously) from another nest of this species, and 

 placed therein the young bird mentioned above. The layer 

 of the eggs, returning shortly afterwards, looked astonished, 

 but immediately and carefully gathered the young bird under 

 its wing. Continuing this mild experiment, I now extracted 

 the young feathered bird after it had been there for fifteen 

 minutes, and placed a member of the White-browed species, 

 bcrn two days previously, in the nest. The proprietor 

 returned, and despite the fact that the young this time was 

 almost featherless, it behaved precisely as on the previous 

 occasion, and carefully covered the new arrival as if it had been 

 its own. The loss of three eggs was apparently a purely philo- 

 sophical consideration. This young bird was taken through 



