250 HIRUNDINID^. 



A provincial paper furnished the following notice. A small 

 steamer, the Clarence, lies at Annan Waterfoot, and plies 

 between it and Port Carlisle, in the way of tugging vessels. 

 A pair of Swallows built their nest last year under the 

 sponsons of one of the paddle-wheels, riot more than three 

 feet above the water, and succeeded in bringing forth their 

 young. There they are this summer again. During neap 

 tides the Clarence plies every other day, and often every 

 day. When she leaves the Waterfoot, the birds leave her, 

 and keep on the Scotch side ; and when she returns, and is 

 nearing Annan, the Swallows invariably meet her, and ac- 

 company her to her berth. 



Another most unusual selection of a situation for a Swal- 

 low's nest is that which forms the subject of the vignette to 

 the present article, and for the opportunity of figuring which 

 I am indebted to the kindness of William Wells, Esq., of 

 Redleaf. This nest was built on the bough of a sycamore, 

 hanging low over a pond at the Moat, Penshurst, in Kent, 

 in the summer of 1 832. Two sets of eggs were laid in it : 

 the first brood were reared, but the second died unfledged . 

 The vignette was executed from a drawing made by Mr. 

 Edward Cooke, at the request of Mr. Wells, and obligingly 

 devoted to my use. 



The note of the adult Swallow is a soft and sweet 

 warble, and the attention paid by the parent birds to the 

 wants of their young is incessant, returning to the nest with 

 food once in every three minutes throughout a great portion 

 of the day ; yet is the law of migration sometimes of an 

 influence so powerful, that they have been known to desert 

 their young, and leave them to perish in their nests. But 

 as this circumstance has been more particularly observed 

 in the Martin, next to be described, it will be referred to 

 more at length in that place. On the young birds first 

 leaving their nest, " they perch for a few days on the 



