138 WHITE 



lakes and mill-ponds ; and it is also very particular, that if 

 these early visitors happen to find frost and snow, as was the 

 case of the two dreadful springs of 1770 and 1771, they im- 

 mediately withdraw for a time. A circumstance this much 

 more in favor of hiding than migration ; since it is much more 

 probable that a bird should retire to its hybernaculum just at 

 hand, than return for a week or two to warmer latitudes. 



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

 means builds altogether in chimneys, but often within barns 

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

 time : * 



.... "Ante 



Garrula quam tignis nidum suspendit 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 chimneys to houses, except they are English-built : 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 chimneys ; 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. 



Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird shows all 



