OF SELBOHNE. 101 



more probable tluit u bird sbould retire to it's hybernaculum 

 just at hand, than return for a week or two only to warmer 

 latitudes. 



The swallow, though called the chimney-swallow, by no 

 moans builds altogether in chimnies, but often within barns 

 and out-houses against the rafters ; and so she did in Virgil's 

 time : 



"Ante 



" Garrula quam tignis nidos suspendat hirundo." 



In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called ladu swala, the 

 barn-swallow. Besides, in the warmer parts of Europe there 

 are no chimnies to houses, except they are English-lndlt : in 

 these countries she constructs her nest in porches, and gate- 

 ways, and galleries, and open halls *. 



Here and there a bird may affect some odd, peculiar place ; 

 as we have known a swallow build down the shaft of an old 

 well, through which chalk had been formerly drawn up for 

 the purpose of manure : but in general with us this hirundo 

 breeds in chimnies; and loves to haunt those stacks where 

 there is a constant fire, no doubt for the sake of warmth. 

 Not that it can subsist in the immediate shaft where there is a 

 fire ; but prefers one adjoining to that of the kitchen, and 

 disregards the perpetual smoke of that funnel, as I have often 

 observed with some degree of wonder. 



Five or six or more feet down the chimney does this little 

 bird begin to form her nest about the middle of May, which 

 consists, like that of the house-martin, of a crust or shell 

 composed of dirt or mud, mixed with short pieces of straw to 

 render it tough and permanent; with this difference, that 

 whereas the shell of the martin is nearly hemispheric, that of 

 the swallow is open at the top, and like half a deep dish : this 

 nest is lined with fine grasses, and feathers which are often 

 collected as they float in the air. 



* [Many years ago, when some carpenters were occupying my coach- 

 house as a temporary workshop, a pair of chimney-swallows chose to 

 build their nest on a cross beam but a very few feet above the heads of 

 the workmen, where they brought up not only their first but also their 

 second brood, notwithstanding the noise of the work which was con- 

 stantly going on beneath them. T. B.] 



M 



