l8o NATURE STUDY. 



put into a cage, but always ranged about the room at large 

 wherever the children were, and they never went out of 

 doors without taking him with them. Sometimes he would 

 sit on their hands or heads and catch flies for himself, 

 which he soon did with dexterit}'. At length, finding it 

 take too much of their time to supply him with food enough 

 to satisfy' his appetite (for I have no doubt he ate from 

 seven hundred to a thousand flies a day), they used to turn 

 him out of the house, shutting the window to prevent his 

 return, for two or three hours together, in hopes that he 

 would learn to cater for himself, which he soon did ; but 

 still was no less tame, always answering their call, and 

 coming in to the window to them, of his own accord, fre- 

 quently every daj', and always roosting in their room, 

 which he has done regularly from the first till within a 

 week or ten days past. He constantly roosted on one of 

 the children's heads till their bedtime ; nor was he dis- 

 turbed by the child moving about, or even walking, but 

 would remain perfectly quiet with his head under his 

 wing, till he was put away for the night in some warm 

 corner, for he liked much warmth." 



The kind and considerate attempt to alienate the at- 

 tached bird from its little friends had its effect. Mr. Tre- 

 velyan concludes : 



" It is now four days since he came in to roost in the 

 house, and though he did not then show an}- symptoms of 

 shyness, yet he is evidently becoming less tame, as the 

 whistle will not now bring him to the hand ; nor does he 

 visit us as formerly, but he always acknowledges it when 

 within hearing by a chirp and by flying near. Nothing 

 could exceed his tameness for about six weeks ; and I have 

 no doubt it would have continued the same had we not 

 left him to himself as much as we could, fearing he would 

 be so perfectly domesticated that he would be left behind 

 at migration, and of course be starved in the winter from 

 cold and hunger." 



To this letter Mr. Broderip adds: " And so ends this 

 agreeable story ; not, however, that it was ' of course ' that 

 the confiding bird would be starved if it remained ; for the 

 Rev. W. F. Cornish, of Totness, kept two tame swallows, 

 one for a year and a half, and the other for two years, as 

 he informed Mr. Yarrell." 



