NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 75 



Our Transatlantic brethren have also their ' chimney 

 swallow/* described with his usual felicity by Wilson, 

 who remarks that the noise which the old ones make in 

 passing up and down the funnel has some resemblance to 

 distant thunder. When heavy and long-continued rains 

 prevail, the nest loses its hold: if this disaster occurs 

 during the period of incubation, the eggs are of course 

 destroyed when the loosened nest is precipitated to the 

 bottom. But kind Nature has provided for the safety of 

 the brood if the misfortune happens before they can well 

 fly; for the muscular power of the feet and the sharpness 

 of the claws of the nestlings, even when they are blind 

 — and a considerable time elapses before they can see — 

 are remarkable, and the houseless young frequently 

 scramble up the sides of the vent, to which they cling 

 like squirrels, and are often fed by the parents for a 

 week or more while so situated. 



Mr. Churchman, a correspondent of Wilson, counted 

 more than two hundred go in of an evening into one 

 chimney of a mansion. Once he saw a cat come upon 

 the house, and place herself near the chimney, where 

 she strove to catch the birds as they entered, but with- 

 out success. Puss then climbed to the chimney-top, and 

 there took her station. The birds, nothing daunted, 

 descended in gyrations without seeming to regard her, 

 though she made frequent attempts to grab them. ' I 

 was pleased,' adds good Mr. Churchman, ' to see that 

 they all escaped her fangs.' Wilson, who was a close 

 observer, says that he never knew these birds resort to 

 kitchen chimneys where fire was kept in summer. He 

 thought he had noticed them enter such chimneys for 

 the purpose of exploring, but he observed also that they 

 immediately ascended, and went off, on finding fire and 

 smoke. 



* Hirundo pelasgia, Linn. 



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