BANK-SWALLOWS. 255 



crows and small hawks that lie in wait ready to pounce 

 upon the first poor little fellow that launches upon the un- 

 tried air. Those that manage to run the gauntlet of the 

 hawks collect in small companies by themselves, and have a 

 good time hunting by day and roosting at night among the 

 river -reeds, until the autumn migration. "At this time, 

 Salerne observes," says Latham, " that the young are very 

 fat, and in flavor scarcely inferior to the ortolan" Some- 

 times the parents forsake their progeny in the nest, and 

 seem generally to care less for them than is usually the 

 case among swallows. 



But not the young alone are exposed to enemies. It 

 would seem as though the situation of the nest precluded 

 invasion, yet, if they are near the haunts of the house-spar- 

 row, they are sure to be dispossessed of their homes by that 

 buccaneer. Snakes, too, can sometimes reach their holes ; 

 weasels, like that one Mr. Hewitson tells us of, are often 

 sharp enough to make their entree from above : school-boys 

 regard the pink-white eggs a fine prize ; and, last and worst 

 of all, the bank-swallows are many times utterly worried 

 out of their galleries by fleas and young horse-flies, which 

 swarm and increase in their nests until the bird finds en- 

 durance no longer a virtue, and digs a new latebra. 



