188 THE SWALLOWS. 



which is very rapid and buoyant, and sustained for a long time 

 without fatigue. The nests of many of the true swallows are 

 peculiar, being coated outside with clay or mud, mixed with 

 pieces of straw, dried grass, &c, which grows hard and 

 compact, while the inside is abundantly lined with feathers and 

 other soft materials. Being summer visitors, they are later in 

 breeding than our indigenous birds, which, as a rule, begin to 

 breed with the bursting of the buds in Spring, while our 

 summer migrants, the swallows, breed in May and June, and 

 again in September. Their activity, elegance of flight, and 

 attachment to human dwellings make them universal 

 favourites — especially as it is only in summer, when Nature is in 

 her most cheerful mood, when the very air is teeming with 

 insect life, that they can exist, and must leave us on the 

 approach of surly winter. The swallows moult in February in 

 the warmer regions of Africa and Asia, and come to us in their 

 renewed plumage. This fact has been proved by birds which 

 have been kept eight and nine years in captivity. Three 

 species of these cheerful harbingers of Summer frequent and 

 flit about the scaurs and grey ruins of St Andrews, as well as 

 almost every town, village, and farm steading in Scotland. 

 These are the well-known red-fronted or chimney swallow, the 

 white-rumped or window swallow, and the sand martin ; and so 

 abundant were they in former years with us that the space 

 where they flitted and skimmed above the rocky scaurs, from 

 the old castle to the Martyrs' monument, was called " Swallow 

 Gate" or Swallow Street, from which some authors say that at 

 one period St Andrews had a long street called after the 

 swallows — now erroneously called the " Scores," facing the 

 sea, before the view was spoilt by Provost Playfair and others 

 allowing houses to be built on the top of the scaurs (or cliffs) 

 when they had the option of buying the park at a low price. 

 There could be no place better suited for these cheerful summer 

 visitors than between the Kirkhill, on the east, by the old 

 castle and the scaurs, to the Witch-Lake Brae on the west, 

 especially for the sand martins forming their nests on the face 

 of the brae at " Dennis Work," near the Cathedral, and in the 

 face of the Witch-Lake Brae, near the Step Kock. 



There are none of the manifold pleasures of life we would 

 more reluctantly part with than the annual visit of our cheerful 

 feathered friends the swallows. They spend the half of their 

 perpetual summer with us in skimming around our paths and 

 dwellings, and if w T e seek pleasure on the sands or links, the 



