S18 HIRUNDINID.E, 



selection of a situation for a Swallow's nest is that Avliicli 

 forms tlie subject of the vignette to the present article, and 

 for the opportunity of figuring which I am indebted to the 

 kindness of William Weld, Esq. of Redleaf. This nest was 

 built on the bough of a sycamore, hanging low over a pond 

 at the Moat, Penshurst, in Kent, in the summer of 1832. 

 Two sets of efrsrs were laid in it : the first brood were reared, 

 but the second died unfledged. The vignette was executed 

 from a drawing made by Mr. Edward Cooke, at the request 

 of Mr. Weld, and obligingly devoted to my use. 



The note of the adult Swallow is a soft and sweet warble, 

 and the attention paid by the parent birds to the wants of 

 their young is incessant, returning to the nest with food once 

 in every three minutes throughout a great portion of the day; 

 yet is the law of migration sometimes of an influence so 

 powerful, that they have been known to desert their young, 

 and leave them to perish in their nests. But as this cir- 

 cumstance has been more particularly observed in the Mar- 

 tin, next to be described, it will be referred to more at length 

 in that place. On the young birds first leaving their nest, 

 " they perch for a few days on the chimney top, or on the 

 roof of the house, and are there fed by their parents. Their 

 next essay is to reach some leafless bough, where they sit in 

 rows, and receive their food. Soon after they take to the 

 wing, but still want skill to seize their own prey. They 

 hover near the place where their parents are in chase of flics, 

 attend their motions, meet them, and receive from their 

 mouths the offered sustenance." 



When the young broods have entirely left their nests they 

 roost by hundreds among willows and osiers near water till 

 the time for their departure from this country arrives, when 

 they leave us in large flocks to seek a more southern latitude, 

 there to enjoy a continuance of that temperature and means 

 of subsistence which these islands from geographical position 



