OCTOBER 167 



here in the north porch. If they could 

 but have understood, I should have per- 

 suaded them to stay a little longer, to give 

 their young a chance. On the i6th only 

 one swallow was seen, and three days 

 after a tragedy happened in the porch ! 

 Late in the afternoon a poor little full- 

 fledged swallow lay dead on the cold 

 stones. The forsaken nestling may have 

 fallen in its hungry efforts for food, or 

 have attempted in its weakness to follow 

 the stronged-winged parents, whose cruel 

 desertion it is hard to forgive. Strange 

 and inexplicable is the migratory instinct 

 with birds. It is then, more powerful with 

 them than even mother's love? and yet 

 love is said to be stronger than death. 



The habits of the swallows who make 

 themselves at home in our entrances, north 

 and south, are full of interest. The red- 

 throated chimney swallows like best the 

 north. On the south side are martins. 

 Both kinds agree in departing from 

 ancestral laws in their ways of house 

 building. The typical swallow's nest used 

 formerly to be neatly built up usually 



