SWALLOW. 249 



nest is chosen, and this, as one of the names of the bird 

 will imply, is most frequently a few feet down an unused 

 chimney, the bird taking advantage of any angle or de- 

 pression to obtain support for the intended structure. The 

 nest is formed of small portions of moist earth, which the 

 bird may be seen on the ground collecting at the edges of 

 ponds, and sometimes at the margins of puddles by road 

 sides. The pellets of soft clay are carried home to the 

 place chosen, there to be moulded with straw and bents 

 into an open saucer-shaped nest, which is afterward lined 

 with feathers. The eggs are generally from four to six in 

 number, nine lines and a half in length, by six lines and a 

 half in breadth, white, speckled with ash colour and dark 

 red. Two broods are produced in the season, the first of 

 which is usually ready to fly by the end of June, and the 

 second by the end of August. But a chimney is not the 

 only place chosen by the Swallow for its nest : in the north 

 of England these birds frequently build in the unused 

 shafts of mines, or in old wells ; sometimes under the roof 

 of a barn or open shed, between the rafters and the thatch 

 or tiles which form the covering. Turrets intended for 

 bells are frequently resorted to, and unused rooms or pas- 

 sages in outhouses, to which access can be gained by the 

 round hole so frequently to be observed cut in the doors to 

 such buildings, and within which the birds take advantage 

 of any projecting peg, or end of a beam, that will serve as 

 a buttress to support the nest. I have heard of a nest 

 made by a pair of Swallows in the half open drawer of a 

 small deal table in an unoccupied garret, to which access 

 was obtained by a broken pane of glass. Pennant men- 

 tions an instance in which a pair of Swallows attached 

 their nest to the body and wing of an Owl nailed against a 

 barn ; this specimen was preserved in the museum of the 

 late Sir Ashton Lever, and is now in my own collection. 



