SWALLOW. 217 



May the situation for tlie nest is chosen, and this, as one of 

 the names of the bird will imply, is most frequently a few 

 feet down an unused chimney, the bird taking advantage of 

 any angle or depression to obtain support for the intended 

 structure. The nest is formed of small portions of moist 

 earth, Avhich the bird may be seen on the ground collecting 

 at the edges of ponds, and sometimes at the margins of puddles 

 by road sides. The pellets of soft clay are carried home to 

 the place chosen, there to be moulded with straw and bents 

 into an open saucer-shaped nest, which is afterwards lined 

 with feathers. The eggs are generally from four to six in 

 number, nine lines and a half in length, by six lines and a 

 half in breadth, white, speckled with ash colour and dark red. 

 Two broods are produced in the season, the first of which is 

 usually ready to fly by the end of June, and the second by 

 the end of August. But a chimney is not the only place 

 chosen by the Swallow for its nest : in the north of England 

 these birds frequently build in the unused shafts of mines, or 

 in old wells ; sometimes under the roof of a barn or open 

 shed, between the rafters and the thatch or tiles which form 

 the covering. Turrets intended for bells are frequently 

 resorted to, and unused rooms or passages in outhouses, 

 to which access can be gained by the round hole so fre- 

 quently to be observed cut in the doors to such build- 

 ings, and within which the birds take advantage of any pro- 

 jecting peg, or end of a beam, that will serve as a buttress to 

 support the nest. I have heard of a nest made by a pair of 

 Swallows in the half open drawer of a small deal table in an 

 unoccupied garret, to which access was obtained by a broken 

 pane of glass. Pennant mentions an instance in which a pair 

 of Swallows attached their nest to the body and wing of an 

 Owl nailed against a barn ; this specimen was preserved in 

 the museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever, and is now in the 

 possession of a family at Kensington. Another most unusual 



