SWALLOW 927 
after its winter-sojourn in southern lands, and generally reaching 
England about the first week in April, it at once repairs to its old 
quarters, nearly always around the abodes of men; and about a 
month later, the site of the nest is chosen, resort being had in most 
cases to the very spot that has formerly served the same purpose— 
the old structure, if still remaining, being restored and refurnished. 
So trustful is the bird, that it commonly establishes itself in any of 
men’s works that will supply the necessary accommodation, and a 
shed, a barn or any building with an open roof, a chimney! that 
affords a support for the nest, or even the room of an inhabited 
house—if chance should give free access thereto—to say nothing of 
extraordinary positions, may be the place of its choice. Where- 
soever placed, the nest is formed of small lumps of moist earth, 
which, carried to the spot in the bird’s bill, are duly arranged and 
modelled, with the aid of short straws or slender sticks, into the 
required shape. ‘This is generally that of a half-saucer, but it varies 
according to the exigencies of the site? The materials dry quickly 
into a hard crust, which is lined with soft feathers, and therein are 
laid from four to six white eggs, blotched and speckled with grey 
and orange-brown deepening into black. Two broods are usually 
reared in the season, and the young on leaving the nest soon make 
their way to some leafless bough, whence they try their powers of 
flight, at first accompanying their parents in short excursions on 
the wing, receiving from them the food they themselves are as yet 
unable to capture, until able to shift for themselves. They collect 
in flocks, often of many hundreds, and finally leave the country 
about the end of August or early in September, to be followed, 
after a few weeks, by their progenitors. ‘The Swallows of Europe 
doubtless pass into Africa far beyond the equator,? and those of 
Northern Asia, H. gutturalis and #H. tyéleri, though many stop in 
been that a generic term, to be valid, must be defined. In the absence of 
definition such a term may be, by courtesy, occasionally accepted; but this 
courtesy has never been, nor except in America is likely to be, extended to the 
misapplication here in question. : 
1 Hence the common English name of ‘‘ Chimney-Swallow.” In North 
America it is usually the ‘‘ Barn-Swallow,” as in Sweden. 
2 In 1870 M. Pouchet announced to the French Academy of Science (Comptes 
Rendus, \xx. p. 492) that the ‘‘ Hirondelles” building in the new part of Rouen 
had adapted themselves to the modern style of architecture there used, and so 
saved much of the mud which was necessary when they builtin the old part of the 
city, whence he inferred that they had reasoning powers. It fell to M. Noulet 
(op. cit. Ixxi. p. 77) to shew this was an illusion: the Hirondelles of the new 
town were H. rustica, those of the old H. or Chelidon urbica! (Cf. Ann. N. H. 
sér. 4, v. p. 807, vi. p. 270; and Yarrell, Br. B. ed. 4, ii. p. 350, note.) 
3 It must be noted that the Swallow has been observed in England in every 
month of the year; but its appearance from the beginning of December to the 
middle of March is an extremely rare occurrence, 
