Flying, flying South. in 



Swallows have been seen at Christmas ; still more 

 rarely, in the two months that follow. 



Fast and far the little travellers will fly. The road 

 is long ; there are perils by the way. Cold and hunger 

 will thin the ranks ; kite and falcon will harass the 

 defenceless columns. Of those who reach the African 

 shore some will stay to the north of the Sahara ; 

 others will wander far to southward down the western 

 coast ; many will winter even at the Cape. 



They have been with us nearly half the year. In 

 April, or even earlier, the vanguard crossed the sea. 

 A few weeks of holiday followed their return. A few 

 weeks on the river, a few weeks of the free life of the 

 heavens, and then they settled down to the serious 

 business of the season. 



Last year's nest perhaps their home for many 

 summers was repaired. Or if in the interval some 

 Vandal had swept away the fragile walls a new one 

 was commenced. It is a shallow structure, built of 

 moist and kneaded earth, gathered up in the road or 

 by the bank of a stream. 



It is generally out of sight. Here in a disused 

 chimney, there among the rafters of an outhouse, 

 sometimes even in a well. Two cases are recorded in 

 which swallows built in trees. 



It is true that swallows sometimes build in more 

 open situations ; but the nests over the cottage window, 

 the clay-built homes that cluster thick along the eaves, 

 are the work of another mason the house-martin. 



