THE SWALLOW. 261 



cries during the whole period of incubation. A weary 

 though resistless task it must be to the ever moving 

 Swallow to sit patiently for so long in a gloomy shed or 

 outbuilding. Yet it is a labour of love, to which the 

 sitting bird willingly yields its life of liberty and motion 

 for so long a period, and the sight of their tender brood 

 amply repays the joyous parents for the weary anxious 

 days of confinement. 



Early in July the young Swallows are strong on the 

 wing, and it is a pleasing sight to watch the old birds 

 feed them when flying through the air. Well do the 

 little ones know their parents' call, and fly quickly to 

 them, when the parent bird places in their beaks the 

 proffered food, both little one and parent all the time 

 fluttering in, the air, and giving forth their twittering 

 notes. The young Swallows can instantly be distinguished 

 from the mature birds by the absence of the two thin 

 and elongated tail feathers, which are a mark of maturity 

 alone. The food of the Swallow is composed of insects 

 alone, and the number these birds destroy in a single 

 summer, would, if known, be truly astounding. They are, 

 in the summer time, on the wing for fully sixteen hours, 

 and the greater part of the time making terrible havoc 

 amongst the millions of insects which infest the air. I 

 never see them molest the butterflies, but doubtless the 

 smaller species of day-flying moths are preyed upon. 

 The Swallow keeps up its insect-hunting labour till late 

 in the evening, and I often see its dusky form dash across 

 the western sky while the bat is hawking for flies around 

 me. When we see the Swallow flying high in the 

 heavens it is a neverfailing sign of fine weather. The 

 reason of this elevated flight is simply because the 

 insects on which it feeds are acted on by the state of 

 the atmosphere in their low or elevated flights. The 



