CHAP. SEVENTEEN SPRING BIRDS 



April. It is acurious thingto observe howa pair of swallows 

 season after season build their nest in the same angle of a 

 window.or cornerofawall, coming immediately to thesame 

 spot, after their long absence and weary flight, and either 

 repairing their old residence or building a new one. 



Great numbers of sand-martins build in the banks of the 

 river, returning to the same places every year, and after 

 clearing out their holes, they carry in a great quantity of 

 feathers and dried grass, which they lay loosely at the end 

 of their subterranean habitation. 



The swifts appear always to take up their abode about 

 the highest buildings in the towns and villages, flying and 

 screaming like restless spirits round and round the church 

 steeple for hours together, sometimes dashing in at a small 

 hole under the eaves of the roof, or clinging with their hard 

 andpowerful clawsto the perpendicularwalls; atothertimes 

 theyseemtobe occupied thewholedayindarting like arrows 

 along the course of the burn in pursuit of the small gnats, 

 of which they catch great numbers in their rapid flight. I 

 have found in the throat of both swift and martin a number 

 of smallflies,stickingtogetherin a lumpaslarge asamarble, 

 and though quitealive, unable to escape. It is probably with 

 these that they feed their young, for the food of all swallows 

 consisting of the smaller gnats and flies, they cannot carry 

 them singly to theirnests,butmustwait tilltheyhave caught 

 a good quantity. 



We are visited too bythat very curious little bird the tree- 

 creeper, Certhiafamiliaris,vihosG. rapid manner of running 

 round the trunk of a tree in search of insects is most amus- 

 ing. Though not exactly a bird of passage, as it is seen at 

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