42 THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 
drudge on to no purpose from summer to summer, 
without changing their aspect or house. It is @ 
most piteous sight to see them labouring when half 
their nest is washed away.”’* 
The swallow is a general favourite. “He comes 
to us when nature is putting on her most smiling 
aspect, and he stays with us through the months 
of sunshine and gladness. ‘The swallow,” says 
Sir H. Davy, “is one of my favourite birds, and a 
rival of the nightingale; for he glads my sense of 
seeing as much as the other does my sense of 
hearing. He is the joyous prophet of the year, the 
harbinger of the best season; he lives a life of 
enjoyment among the loveliest forms of nature; 
winter is unknown to him, and he leaves the green 
meadows of England in autumn, for the myrtle and 
orange groves of Italy, and for the palins of Africa.” 
A remarkable contrast to the snug little clay nest 
of the swallow is presented by the massive, Egyp- 
tian-like edifice of a very singular bird, who builds, 
however, with somewhat similar materials—the 
flamingo or crimson-wing of the ancients (Pheni- 
coplerus ruber, Linn.). The increase of population 
seems to have partly banished this species, with 
many other birds, from the shores of Europe to 
the less frequented waters of America and Africa, 
where it may be seen, as Campbell describes it, 
‘‘ Disporting like a meteor on the lakes.” 
Roberts, a traveller who viewed the bird through a 
plain prosaic medium, compares a line of them to 
a brick wall, for which, he says, their colour and 
attitude may cause them to be taken. Indeed, the 
appearance of this bird has led to many misconcep- 
tions. During the French revolutionary war, when 
the English were expected to make a descent upon 
St. Domingo, a negro, having perceived, at the dis- 
tance of some miles, in the direction of the sea, 2 
* White’s Selborne, i, 272. 
