32 HIRUNDINID.E. 



favourite site is, however, a hole in a wall, sheltered by the over- 

 hanging tiles or thatch ; for though it does not go much into towns, as 

 Azara has remarked, it is very domestic, and there is not a house on the 

 pampas, however humble it be, but some of these birds are about it, 

 sportively skimming above the roof, or curiously peering under the 

 eaves, and incessantly uttering their gurgling happy notes. 



For a period of a month to six weeks before building begins they 

 seem to be holding an incessant dispute, reminding one in their scolding 

 tones of a colony of contentious English House-Sparrows, only the 

 Swallow has a softer, more varied voice, and frequently, even when 

 hotly quarrelling, he pauses to warble out his pretty little song, with its 

 sound like running water. However many eligible chinks and holes 

 there may be, the contention is always just as great amongst them, and 

 is doubtless referable to opposing claims to the best places. The excited 

 twittering, the incessant striving of two birds to alight on the same 

 square inch of wall, the perpetual chases they lead each other round and 

 round the house, always ending exactly where they began, tell of 

 clashing interests and of great unreasonableness on the part of some 

 amongst them. By-and-by the quarrel assumes a more serious aspect ; 

 friends and neighbours have apparently intervened in vain; all the 

 arguments of which Swallows are capable have been exhausted, and, a 

 compromise of claims being more impossible than ever, fighting begins. 

 Most vindictively do the little things clutch each other and fall to the 

 earth twenty times an hour, where they often remain struggling for a 

 long time, heedless of the screams of alarm their fellows set up above 

 them; for often, while they thus lie on the ground punishing each 

 other, they fall an easy prey to some wily pussy who has made herself 

 acquainted with their habits. 



When these feuds are finally settled, they address themselves dili- 

 gently to the great work and build a rather big nest. They are not 

 neat or skilful workers, but merely stuff a great quantity of straw and 

 other light materials into the breeding-hole, and line the nest with 

 feathers and horsehair. On this soft but disorderly bed the female lays 

 from five to seven pure white eggs. 



All those species that are liable at any time to become the victims of 

 raptorial birds are very much beholden to this Swallow, as he is the 

 most vigilant sentinel they possess. When the hurrying Falcon is still 

 far off, and the other birds unsuspicious of his approach, the Swallows 

 suddenly rush up into the sky with a wild rapid flight to announce the 

 evil tidings with distracted screams. The alarm spreads swift as light 

 through the feathered tribes, which, on all sides, are in terrified 

 commotion, crouching in the grass, plunging into thickets, or mounting 



