RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY. 



of him. 9. I your boy ashamed of hi conduct? 10. Yea, Sir, he in 



' ,,( it II. Aro you afraid of thia hone or of that. 12. I 



r afraid of this nor of that 13. Does our errant take care 



t He take* good care of them. 15. Are you afraid 



of apeak iutf or reading ? 16. I am afraid neither of ipeaking nor of 



reading. 17. Are you oatoniihed at that affair? 18. I am not 



.d at it. 19. Are you sorry for it? 20. Tea, Sir. I am very 



H..ITV for it. 21. Do you want that boy? 22. Yea, Madam, I want 



to you not want hia hook? 24. I do not want it. 25. 



Haro you a wish to work or to read ? 26. I neither wish to work nor 



to read, I wish for rest, for I am tired. 



RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE SWALLOW. 



IN oar present paper on the swallow we must limit our remarks 

 to the four British species : the Chimney Swallow, House Martin, 

 Sand Martin, and Swift. The Alpine, or white-breasted swift, 

 the spine-tailed swallow, and the purple martin, cannot be con- 

 sidered British birds, though they may have been seen in our 

 island. Scientifically speaking, the swifts and swallows are in- 

 cluded in a group to which the name Hirundonida has been 

 given, from the Latin hirundo, a swallow. This group is sub- 

 divided into two lesser groups, under one of which all the swifts 

 are classed, while all the various kinds of swallows* and martins 

 are placed in the other. Swifts are distinguished from swallows 

 by the extreme length of the first two primary feathers of 

 the wing. 



The Chimney Swallow is one of the earliest arrivals, coming 

 from Africa over the English Channel about the middle of 

 April. Of course the birds do not travel direct from Africa in 

 one journey. Italy, Spain, and Franco become so many 

 stages on the road, where food is picked up, and some rest 

 obtained. There appears to bo a little self-will or caprice about 

 some of the birds, a few having been known to show themselves 

 in January, and others waiting till May. 



Every one seems glad when the first swallow flits across the 

 village green, but we sober English have never kept a " swallow 

 holiday" on the 15th of April, which is, in some parts of Europe, 

 called " swallow day." In ancient Greece the children might 

 well clap their tiny hands when the birds of spring appeared ; 

 a holiday being then given to little boys and girls. They 

 danced in the market-places, wove garlands of the early flowers, 

 and shouted in the luxury of childish joy. That was a capital 

 plan for making children love the birds. 



Why do we call it chimney swallow ? Simply from its 

 tendency to build in hollow places, such as old mine-shafts, 

 disused wells, or chimneys. Some of these birds show very odd 

 tastes in selecting a family home. A table drawer had been 

 left open in a room seldom occupied, and, a window-pane being 

 broken, a pair of these swallows appropriated one corner of the 

 drawer for their nest. When the human owner wished to use 

 the table, most emphatic were the remonstrances of the birds. 

 Depart they would not ; the hen fluttered her wings, screamed 

 Migrily, and plainly intimated that the corner had become her 

 property by right of occupation. This bird logic prevailed ; the 

 little family was brought up in safety, and all parties were 

 satisfied. 



The chimney swallow is easily known by its deeply forked 

 tail, the ruddy hue on its throat, and its lightish tinted breast. 

 The rapid movements of the bird its sudden darts and turns, now 

 np, now down, over the observer's head, and then skimming the 

 ground in long, arrow-like flights present a specimen of a 

 living machine in beautiful and perfect action. But, notwith- 

 standing this power of flight, the birds are sometimes completely 

 exhausted by their journeys across the sea. They can battle 

 for a long time with the mere force of a tempest, but when the 

 blast is both cold and strong, the winged voyagers are almost 

 paralysed. A whole army of swallows will then crowd the 

 rigging of some lonely ship, clinging for hours to ropes and 

 spar?, until recovered strength again enables them to obey the 

 " forward " impulse. No wonder if those beings of summer 

 climes sometimes marvel at the rough treatment received in our 

 ruder latitudes. A cutting "north-easter" is no smiling 

 reception for a creature which has been basking for months in 

 the sun of Egypt. The result may amaze the swallows, but 

 human philosophy can explain it all. They perish by thou- 

 Bands in such years. On one bitter spring day, a gentleman 



picked up in the course of hia morning's walk ninety-two 

 chimney swallows, not dead, bat benumbed by the cold. Being 

 placed in a warm hamper, they all recovered, and .flew off the 

 next day. On another occasion numbers were found on the 

 window-ailla of a country boose, heaped on each other fire or six 

 deep. Instinct had clearly led them to seek aid from man. 

 Some may naturally ask, why do the swallows so eagerly rash 

 from the warm regions of the south to battle with the storms 

 of the north ? We cannot answer the question ; guessing 

 might, of course, bo carried to a great extent, but guessing on 

 such subjects is trifling. That there is some wise purpose in 

 the habit we may be sure, or it would not exist. Another 

 remarkable feature about chimney swallows is their courage. 

 Look at these birds fighting with a hawk, and then say 

 whether they are cowards. Of course they suffer for their 

 daring ? Not in the least ; the hawk gets the worst of it, and 

 retreats in a fury from the inglorious contest. What can the 

 hawk do P He is a brave follow, but the swallows are too quick 

 for him, darting down on his back, and np again with a speed 

 which baffles the clutch of his talons. He resembles a heavy 

 seventy-four man-of-war surrounded by a fleet of steam gun- 

 boats ; strength is beaten by speed. 



The chimney swallow does not come to the British Isles for a 

 holiday, that is certain, but for downright hard work. The 

 building of a house, and the bringing np of two families in one 

 short season, are enough to tax the energies of the most enter- 

 prising bird. The parents are so hard pushed for time that the 

 first family often receives warning to quit before its education 

 is quite complete. But the little things soon manage to provide 

 their own food without the aid of the mother bird. The second 

 family sometimes fares the worst, being forced to join in the 

 great autumnal migration as soon as they are able to fly. 



The assembling of these birds is a well-known eight. How 

 closely they crowd on the house-tops, trees, and railway wires. 

 How silently they sit for awhile, as if reflecting on past errors, 

 or speculating on future mishaps. Then what a sudden burst 

 of chattering is there, as if every bird were determined to force 

 his own particular hobby on his neighbour. 



Some naturalists have suggested that a few of these birds 

 remain here in a sleeping state during the winter, and re- 

 appear, lean and hungry, in the spring. Others laugh at this 

 notion as "absurd," and pooh-pooh the opinion altogether. 

 We venture, however, to agree with those who refuse to believe 

 in the swallow's winter sleep. If some of the birds remain 

 behind, they probably perish from want of insect food, except in 

 those rare winters when frost is almost unknown. 



The House Martin is easily distinguished by its snowy breast, 

 and noted for the trusting confidence in which it builds its nest 

 above our doors and against our houses. It arrives here some- 

 what later than the chimney swallow, and is a surer prophet of 

 sunny skies. In this light the ancient poets regarded the 

 martin, singing its praises as the loved herald of flowery meads 

 and laughing hours. Have swallows a good memory ? Do the 

 martins really find their way back to the parent nest over 

 African deserts, ocean waves, and Spanish mountains by 

 memory P If so, the organ of locality must be large in their 

 little brains. But then we are cautioned against applying 

 phrenology to the heads of birds, and we therefore pause in the 

 midst of a tempting speculation. The same nest is often used 

 year after year by surviving members of a family, and some- 

 times a little bird village of nests is formed by the labours of 

 several generations. How do the little builders make the 

 materials of the nest so adhesive that the work adheres not 

 only to a brick wall but to a smooth window-pane ? Here, 

 again, the answer comes, "we know not," See, too, how 

 careful the birds are to build up little by little, allowing each 

 day's work to harden before a fresh layer is added. All this 

 looks very much like the skill of Devonshire workmen when 

 building the " cob-wall " a composition of mud and chopped 

 straw, used for the upper part of the walls of barns, and even 

 cottages, in some parts of that county. We call this instinct 

 in the birds, but we really know nothing of the matter. 



Our pretty martin is not always very honest in its notions, 

 even taking possession of a neighbour's house, and then 

 fighting desperately in defence of the wrong. "Just like 

 human beings," some satirists will, perhaps, say. Honesty, 

 however, is found in the long run to be the best policy, 

 even among martins; a series of battles, the loss of pretty 



