254 FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 
lieu of a better place; and at St. Paul I have seen them 
penetrating solid, but soft, sand-rock. 
“‘ How long does it take the bird to dig his cavern under 
ordinary circumstances v2 
is a question which it would seem 
hard to answer, considering the cryptic character of his 
work. Mr. W. H. Dall says four days suffice to excavate 
the nest. Mr. Morris, a close observer of British birds, says, 
per contra, a fortnight; and that the bird removes twenty 
ounces of sand a day. Male and female alternate in the 
labor of digging, and in the duties of incubation. 
When the female is sitting you may thrust your arm in 
and grasp her, and, notwithstanding the noise and violence 
attending the enlargement of the aperture of her nest-hole, 
she will sit resolutely on, and allow herself to be taken in 
the hand with scarcely a struggle or sign of resistance— 
even of life, sometimes. ‘The young are fed with large in- 
sects caught by the parents, particularly those sub-aquatic 
sorts which hover near the surface of still water; and 
White mentions instances where young swallows were fed 
with dragon-flies nearly as long as themselves. The young 
do not leave the nest until they are about ready to take 
full care of themselves. Finally, they are pushed off by 
the parents to make way for a second brood, and, inex- 
perienced in the use of their wings, many fall a prey to 
a 
