28 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS 



On Christmas eve I observed that two young were about 

 to fly from a nest built in an odd-looking piece of dead 

 timber near the ground, which I had watched for eight 

 days previously. One would serve as a cabinet repre- 

 sentative specimen, so I withdrew it at 7 p.m. For an 

 hour and a quarter I kept fifty yards away, watching other 

 birds, and returning then I found the parents had removed 

 the remaining young swallow, probably for preservation 

 sake. 



Meanwhile I had extracted three fresh eggs (the third 

 one laid the day previously) from another nest of this 

 species, and placed therein tlie young bird mentioned. 

 The layer of the eggs, returning at once, looked astonished, 

 but immediately and carefully gathered the young bird 

 under its plumage. Continuing this mild experiment, the 

 young feathered bird was now extracted, after being there 

 for fifteen minutes, and a member of the White-browed 

 species, born two days previously, was placed in the nest. 

 The proprietor female bird returned, and a second time 

 gently covered the creature, this time almost a featherless 

 one, as if it belonged to it, and the loss of three eggs was 

 purely a philosophical matter. This young bird was taken 

 through its cradled course of life by the ninth day later, 

 and released on the same day as the two in the nest from 

 which it was removed. The young of the previous species 

 at 24 hours of age are downy and well stored with vitality. 

 The last movement of one made in methylated spirit was 

 the drooping of the neck and head upon its chest after 20J 

 minutes had elapsed from the time of placing it in the 

 bottle. 



The majority of nests were loosely constructed, but 

 where fibrous roots were with ease available invariably 

 they were used, and the results were compact nests, neatly 



