SWALLOW AND HOtsE-MARTIN :io; 



:nnl Mill less so when lx>th parent* ami the fully fledged young all 

 crowd into it together, not without much hustling and mutual recrimi- 

 nation, subversive both of tilial piety and parental devotion. Whether 

 the first brood continue to return to sleep when their mother IN 

 actually Hitting on her second clutch of eggs, I am not certain, hut 

 thry appear usually to betake themselves elsewhere after the second 

 brood is hatched. 1 Members of both broods may, however, be found 

 in the nest together. Weir caught in one nest both parents, two 

 young of the first brood, and four of the second.* 



The nest of the swallows is less attractive as a dormitory. The cock, 

 (hiring the breeding season, roosts either on the edge of it, on some 

 convenient perch near it, or, according to Naumann, occasionally 

 away in some osier or reed-bed. These latter may have been non- 

 breeding birds. The hen would naturally roost in it from the 

 moment her first egg was laid. She roosts with her mate when 

 the nest is building, and no doubt also when the pair return to 

 their old nest, but whether they roost in or near it I do not know. 

 The young, when fledged, usually return to the nest, but sometimes, 



hccausr the nest has ln-en disturbed, hoth pan-lit and 

 drsrrt it to roost on the hou^'h of a tive. when- they ina> In- 



seen drawn up in one or two lines, their heads tucked away. When 

 the first broods are able to shift for themselves they roost together in 

 reeds or trees or bushes, where they are joined later by their parents 

 and the second broods. As night approaches, flock after flock may IK? 

 seen to rush down from the sky to the roost, like showers of large 

 ' black soot-flakes." ' 



IV 



If the swallow is inferior to the martin as an architect, he excels 

 him in song. This is a cheerful, musical twittering, which the bird 

 utters either when perched or as he flies through the air. Sometimes 



1 According to detailed obwrrationi by H. FUcher Stewart in the Mittrilungfn der Aar- 

 gauitchen Saturfortrhrndtn Ottflltrhafl, Heft x., already quoted. 



* MacgilliTray, Hillary of Bird*, iii. 502. ' Zoologist, 1870, 4558 (J. J. 



VOL. II. 2R 



