SWALLOW. 159 



together on the branches of an ancient pollard ash, and were 

 so fatigued that several dropped from the tree, and even 

 allowed me to pick them up and put them on the somewhat 

 flat surface of a large limb, where they remained quiet for 

 more than half an hour. This was at least four miles inland, 

 and I never could understand why they had not rested sooner ; 

 but I suppose the distance to a Swallow in full flight is a 

 matter of very fcAv minutes, and hardly appreciable. 



The nest is built of mud, mixed with small pieces of hay 

 or straw, and lined with feathers, which the Swallow hke 

 the Martin, often, perhaps always, catches in the air. It is 

 saucer- shaped, and though often placed in a chimney, about 

 six feet down the shaft, is more commonly found on the sur- 

 face of a beam in a barn, or under the roof of a porcb, or out- 

 house, perhaps under a bridge, or the arch of a gateway. I 

 once found one in a small box left on the seat of a summer- 

 house ; and, when a boy at school, saw one in the same situa- 

 tion as that mentioned by Gilbert White^ namely^ on the 

 back of a dried Owl, which he says went to the Leverian 

 Museum. My specimen was hanging up in a barn at Wester- 

 gate, near Chichester ; what became of it I do not know. 

 When the young are hatched, the parent birds collect a large 

 quantity of gnats and small Co/eoptera in their mouths, with 

 which to feed them. At this time, on the approach of a 

 person to the nest, it will swoop down at his head, making a 

 snapping noise with its beak, as it will also at a dog or cat. 

 I have seen them caught by boys, witb a fishing-rod, with a 

 small white feather, or piece of paper on the hook. Should a 

 Hawk come in sight, they will collect, and mob him and drive 

 him oft'. They assemble in large numbers on roofs and tele- 

 graph wires, previous to their departure from the country^ 

 and the main body have all left by the end of October. 



The young may be known on the wing, by the absence of 

 the elongation of the outer feathers of the tail. 



