146 BRITISH BIRDS. 



its claws, and labouring with its bill from the centre 

 outwards. The little builder consequently assumes va- 

 rious positions while at work in the interior, hanging 

 from the roof of the gallery with its back downwards as 

 often as standing on the floor. All the galleries are 

 more or less winding on to their termination, where a 

 bed of loose hay, and a few of the smaller breast fea- 

 thers of geese, ducks, or fowl, are spread with little art, 

 to receive the eggs. 



Some writers have thought that the bank swallow shuns 

 the neighbourhood of man, but instances to the contrary 

 are given by others. A colony appeared at Catrine, in 

 Ayrshire, not only within a few yards of quarry-men 

 constantly at work, but not a gunshot from a row of 

 nearly a hundred houses, close by the doors of which 

 these birds have been seen hawking for flies every hour 

 of the day. Another colony has been observed to be 

 established at the lime-kilns under the west side of 

 Blackheath Hill, though surrounded by streets and rows 

 of houses : here the nests are in the side of the precipit- 

 ous bank, out of the reach of any passenger, and not 

 easily accessible even to the determined spoiler. 



The chimney swallow, so called from its breeding in 

 our chimneys, seems to be known in most parts of the 

 world. It is said to winter in Senegal, and probably 



