392 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



our full-page illustration, on the rafter of a barn, 

 stable, or shed. Sometimes on ledges and other 

 projections in chimneys and from walls. I recollect 

 once finding one inside an old disused mountain 

 lime-kiln, and have known odd pairs of birds to breed 

 underneath the arches of stone bridges. Not long 

 ago I saw one, built upon a piece of ivy dangling from 

 the roof of a shed through which it had grown. 



Materials. Mud, straws, dry grass, and feathers 

 in liberal quantities. 



Eggs. Four to six, generally five, white, speckled, 

 and blotched with dark red-brown, and underlying 

 markings of ash-grey. The markings are generally 

 most numerous round the larger end. I have seen 

 eggs once or twice with hardly any marking on 

 at all. Size about .83 by .55 in. (See Plate V.) 



Time. May, June, July ; and sometimes eggs 

 may be met with as late as the beginning of August. 



Remarks. Migratory, arriving in April and de- 

 parting in September and October. Notes : wet- 

 wet y a warbling kind of song note, and pink, pink 

 when the bird is alarmed. Local and other names : 

 Barn Swallow, House Swallow, Chimney Swallow, 

 Common Swallow. Not a very close sitter until 

 incubation has advanced some stages. 



YOUNG SWALLOWS. 



