WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 159 



ceived her sight ; but she must have travelled that 

 way a hundred times before. 



Swallows frequently come down the great chimneys 

 at the farmhouse, and are found in the rooms, but are 

 always allowed to escape from the window. Swal- 

 lows are said not to perch ; but I have seen them 

 repeatedly perch on those sticks which, where the 

 thatch has somewhat decayed, project a few inches 

 above the roof-tree. Sometimes a row of half a dozen 

 may be observed settled on the roof here. You may 

 see them, too, perch on the topmost boughs of the 

 tall damson trees in the orchard ; and again, later in 

 the autumn, after nesting is over, they assemble in 

 hundreds one might almost say thousands in the 

 withy bed by the brook, settling on the slender willow 

 wands. There they twitter together for an hour or 

 more every evening. They can rise without the slight- 

 est difficulty from the ground, if it is level and not 

 encumbered with grass, as from the surface of the 

 roads. On dull, cold days they settle on the house 

 more frequently than when it is bright and sunny. 



At one end of the farmhouse, which is an irregular 

 building, there is a quiet gable, and in it a casement 

 arched over by the thatch, and shaded by a thick 

 growth of ivy. The casement is low, and not more 

 than eight or nine feet from the ground ; the ivy has 

 climbed the wall, it has spread, too, over the massive 

 wall of the garden which just there abuts upon the 

 house, so that there is a secluded corner formed by 

 the angle. Here some time ago a number of logs of 



