132 THE STORY OF BIRD-LIFE. 



remembers two misguided pairs who decided to 

 throw themselves on the generosity and mercy 

 of the powers that were, for the time being, 

 and that was some four years ago, at a certain 

 College in Oxford. They elected to build under 

 the archway of the main entrance. No sooner 

 had they completed their nest than it was 

 ruthlessly swept away by the College servants. 

 Again they tried with the same result; nothing 

 daunted, they tried yet a third time with the 

 same result; before the fourth nest was completed, 

 the writer sought out one of the dons and 

 pleaded for his feathered friends. But, alas ! in 

 spite of every argument, and every suggestion 

 for lessening any possible inconvenience which 

 might accrue from their presence, he was told 

 that it was in vain to plead. "We cannot have 

 swallows' nests under a College Archway," was 

 the final pronouncement. For three consecutive 

 years these birds, or apparently the same, re- 

 turned to this much coveted spot, and spent the 

 summer fretting out their little lives in a vain 

 appeal for mercy where mercy was not. 



In Lapland, these birds are always welcome. 

 In Muonioniska in 1853, Wolley, the great 

 naturalist, counted nearly one hundred and 

 seventy nests round the courtyard of one house. 

 "In Lapland the people almost everywhere 

 multipl}^ their eaves by nailing narrow planks 

 to the walls at such a distance that there is just 

 room between them for the nests, which thus 

 appear row under row." . . . The cause of the 

 bird's abundance in the country, and of the ac- 

 commodation so gladly given to it, can be readily 



