326 BIKDS OF NOEFOLZ. 



haunts as either of our British, martins. In this county, 

 this ever welcome visitant usually makes its appear- 

 ance about the 15th of April,* and leaves us again towards 

 the end of October, although I have occasionally observed 

 stragglers up to the 12th and 14th of November. The 

 situations selected for nesting purposes are by no means 

 confined to our chimney shafts, as they build quite as 

 frequently under the eaves of out-houses, or on the 

 crossbeams inside the roofs of barns and cattle sheds, 

 and other similar localities, provided access can be 

 obtained by door or window, or any chance aperture. 

 For many years I have known their nests to be placed 

 against the rafters in two covered sheds, erected on 

 either side of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, as a 

 shelter for gigs and carriages; and whilst staying at 

 Lowestoft in the summer of 1864, I found two pairs 

 breeding in a similar manner within the boarded house 

 of the Gorton life-boat. This building has a window on 

 either side, protected with iron bars, and closed when 

 necessary with wooden shutters, but one or other is 

 invariably open during the summer months to admit the 

 air, and thus these pretty creatures had availed them- 

 selves of this snug retreat; but unless they crept out 

 beneath the door way, I could find no other means of 

 escape should both the windows be closed at once. In 

 collecting materials for its nest, the swallow, like the 

 house-martin, will settle on the moist road or the brink 

 of ponds and ditches, and daintily elevating its wings 

 and tail above the soil, gather the soft mud with its beak. 

 Yet, although these clayey structures are always inter- 

 mixed with straw, and lined with grass and feathers, it 



* The table of "observations on indications of spring," made 

 during ten years, commencing 1845, at Stratton Strawless, as 

 published in the Norfolk Chronicle, May 31st, 1856, gives the 

 earliest and latest arrival of the swallow as follows : April 10th, 

 1852; April 28th, 1847. 



