HISTORY OF THE SWALLOW. 163 



own food ; therefore they play about near the place where the 

 dams are hawking for flies ; and, when a mouthful is collected, 

 at a certain signal given, the dam and the nestling advance, 

 rising towards each other, and meeting at an angle ; the young 

 one all the while uttering such a little quick note of gratitude 

 and complacency, that a person must have paid very little re- 

 gard to the wonders of Nature that has not often remarked this 

 feat. 



The dam betakes herself immediately to the business of a 

 second brood as soon as she is disengaged from her first ; which 

 at once associates with the first broods of house-martins ; and 

 with them congregates, clustering on sunny roofs, towers, and 

 trees. This hirundo brings out her second brood towards the 

 middle and end of August. 



All the summer long is the swallow a most instructive pattern 

 of unwearied industry and affection ; for, from morning to night, 

 while there is a family to be supported, she spends the whole 

 day in skimming close to the ground, and exerting the most sud- 

 den turns and quick evolutions. Avenues, and long walks under 

 hedges, and pasture-fields, and mown meadows where cattle 

 graze, are her delight, especially if there are trees interspersed ; 

 because in such spots insects most abound. When a fly is taken 

 a smart snap from her bill is heard, resembling the noise at the 

 shutting of a watch-case ; but the motion of the mandibles are 

 too quick for the eye. 



The swallow, probably the male bird, is the excubitor to house- 

 martins, and other little birds, announcing the approach of birds 

 of prey. For as soon as a hawk appears, with a shrill alarming 

 note he calls all the swallows and martins about him ; who pur- 

 sue in a body, and buffet and strike their enemy till they have 

 driven him from the village, darting down from above on his 

 back, and rising in a perpendicular line in perfect security. This 

 bird also will sound the alarm, and strike at cats when they climb 

 on the roofs of houses, or otherwise approach the nests. Each 

 species of hirundo drinks as it flies along, sipping the surface 

 of the water ; but the swallow alone, in general, washes on the 

 wing, by dropping into a pool for many times together : in 

 very hot weather house-martins and bank-martins dip and wash 

 little. 



The swallow is a delicate songster, and in soft sunny weather 

 sings both perching and flying ; on trees in a kind of concert, 



