SWALLOWS. 187 



Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird 

 shows all day long, in ascending and descending with 

 security through so narrow a pass. When hovering 

 over the mouth of the funnel, the vibrations of her 

 wings, acting on the confined air, occasion a rumbling 

 like thunder. It is not improbable that the dam 

 submits to this inconvenient situation so low in the 

 shaft, in order to secure her broods from rapacious 

 birds, and particularly from owls, which frequently 

 fall down chimneys, perhaps in attempting to get at 

 these nestlings. 



The swallow lays from four to six white eggs, 

 dotted with red specks; and brings out her first 

 brood about the last week in June, or the first week 

 in July. The progressive method by which the 

 young are introduced into life is very amusing: first, 

 they emerge from the shaft with difficulty enough, 

 and often fall down into the rooms below : for a day 

 or so, they are fed on the chimney top, and then are 

 conducted to the dead leafless bough of some tree, 

 where, sitting in a row, they are attended with great 

 assiduity, and may then be called perchers. In a day 

 or two more, they become fliers, but are still unable 

 to take their own food ; therefore, they play about 

 near the place where the dams are hawking for flies ; 

 and when a mouthful is collected, at a certain signal 

 given, the dam and the nestling advance, rising to- 

 wards each other, and meeting at an angle ; the young 

 one all the while uttering such a little quick note of 

 gratitude and complacency, that a person must have 

 paid very little regard to the wonders of Nature that 

 has not often remarked this feat. 



The dam betakes herself immediately to the busi- 

 ness of a second brood, as soon as she is disengaged 

 from her first ; which at once associates with the first 

 broods of house -martins; and with them congregates, 

 clustering on sunny roofs, towers, and trees. This 



