ax 
202 NATURAL HISTORY 
eae’ 
spheric, that ofthe swallow is open at the top, and 
like half a deep dish: this nest is lined with fine 
_ grasses and feathers, which are often collected as 
they float in the air. 
Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird 
shows all day long, in ascending and descending 
with security through so narrow a pass. When 
hovering over the mouth of the funnel, the vibra- 
tions of her wings acting on the confined air occa- 
sion a rumbling like thunder. It is not improbable 
that the dam submits to this inconvenient situation 
so low in the shaft in order to secure her broods 
from-rapacious birds, and particularly from: owls, 
which frequently fall down chimneys, perhaps in 
attempting to get at these nestlings. 
The swallow lays from four to six white eggs, 
dotted with red specks, and brings out her first 
brood about the last week in June or the first week 
in July. The progressive method by which the 
young are introduced into life is very amusing: 
,first, they emerge from the shaft with difficulty 
enough, and often fall down into the rooms below ; 
for a day or so they are fed on the chimney top, 
and then are conducted to the dead, leafless bough 
of some tree, where, sitting in a row, they are at. 
tended with great assiduity, and may then be call- 
ed perchers. In a day or two more they become 
fliers, but are still unable to take their own food; 
therefore they play about near the place where the ' 
dams are hawking for flies, and, when a mo 
is collected, at a certain signal given, the ¢ 
the nestling advance, rising towards ea 
and meeting at an angle, the young o1 
while uttering such a little quick note of 
ie 
* 
