204 THE WHITE-RUMPED (OR WINDOW) SWALLOW. 



and slumber till the return of the sun awakens them ;" which 

 he reiterates in another, saying — " Many of the swallows do not 

 depart fromthisisland,hntliiv themselves up in holes and caverns, 

 and do, insect-like and bat-like, come forth at mild times and 

 retire again to their latebrce," all which he culminates by plainly 

 saying that " a Swedish naturalist is so persuaded of the fact, 

 that he talks as familiarly of the swallows going under water in 

 September as of his poultry going to roost before sunset." All 

 this is the more singular, as Mr White was a close observer and 

 a good naturalist. He was led to this idea by spending some 

 weeks yearly in autumn at Sunbury-on-the-Thames, near 

 Hampton Court, where the swallows congregated in large flocks 

 on their way towards the Equator, by Dover, for he says he 

 " could not help being much amused with the myriads of the 

 swallow-kind which assemble in those parts. But what struck 

 me most was that they roosted every night in the osier beds of 

 the aits (islands) of the Thames. Now this resorting towards 

 that element at that season of the year seems to give some 

 countenance to the opinion, strange as it is, of their retiring 

 under water." 



The active, lively swallow has been known to live nine years 

 in captivity— a convincing proof that a second Nature can be 

 acquired. Like the noted white elephant, or white blackbird, 

 swallows also have albinos. 



I have some in my collection which I got in the district, and 

 stuffed. A brood of four pure white and one black were hatched 

 in Argyle Brewery here. The white ones were all shot ; and 

 another brood of four white red-fronts were got at a farm 

 steading close by. 



A pair of sparrows had a nest under the eave of a two- 

 storeyed house in Lade Braes ; the hole was closed up. A pair 

 of house-martins built under the eave close by. The sparrows 

 took possession of their nest, and opened a large hole in the 

 side of it, and had seven young ones ; four of them fell out in 

 the first week of June, being pinched for room. A man went 

 up with a ladder and found the three remaining young ones. 

 I saw the old ones feeding them on the 13th. 



At four o'clock afternoon on the 12th of July 1892, I saw 

 about fifty swallows and sand-martins flying around two men 

 and two horses engaged cutting hay at the Kinness Burn. They 

 flew quite close, leisurely catching the flies stirred by the 

 cutting, as the robin eyes the delver in his garden for worms. 

 As I stood watching them I saw a red-front bathing in the 



