YOUNG SWALLOWS BEING FED 153 



quick to follow the rapid evolutions of the winged 

 things they feed on. The other day, after a good 

 hard shower, they were tumbling about in the 

 strangest way on the grass, pursuing the insects 

 that had been floored by the rain. 



Do you remember my letter in ' Nature ' about 

 the six little swallows having their dinner, in 

 which I had to remark that the parent fed them 

 very indiscriminately, and by no means each in its 

 'turn '? Well, the other day I watched the feeding 

 of two, on a high roof above human interruption, 

 and I was amazed at the regularity with which 

 the bird gave each a fly in turn as it passed ; and 

 that too though several minutes must sometimes 

 have elapsed before it returned. I feel sure it was 

 one bird ; for once, just as she had popped a fly 

 into a little beak, the other parent flew by, and 

 put one into that of the other ; whereupon the 

 first parent, instead of flying oft' as usual, settled 

 down beside the one it had just fed, and began to 

 chatter. Perhaps it meant : Be so good as to go 

 back to your own charges, and do not interfere 

 with my proceedings ; if you do, I shall forget 

 which to feed next. Perhaps it was making a 

 note for future use that that one was to be fed 

 next, although it had just fed it. Any way, every- 

 thing went on as before, and the right bird had it 

 next. I waited to see if it would be so. 



