536 MY GARDEN. 



The Swallows leave their eggs many hours at a time, when the 

 eggs feel quite cold to the touch ; nevertheless, the birds are hatched 



in due time. 



" How fair the scene ! 

 I wish I had as lovely a green 

 To paint my landscapes and my leaves ! 

 How the swallows twitter under the eaves ! 

 There now ! there is one in her nest ; 

 I can just catch a glimpse of her head and breast, 

 And will sketch her thus in her quiet nook." LONGFELLOW. 



When the time of migration arrives, they appear to leave Europe 

 at the same time from all parts. One year, in October, I travelled 

 hastily to the Mediterranean after the swallows had left England, 

 and then found that they had also left France ; but whence they 

 come and where they go, no one can precisely tell : probably Africa 

 is their winter dwelling-place. Herodotus says that swallows are 

 never known to be absent from Egypt. 



The Kingfisher (Alcedo Ispida, fig. 1151) is a bird with plumage of 

 great beauty, but it is of rapid flight and shy habits. It has bred in 



our grounds, in holes in the bank of the 

 river, and generally in the burrows of the 

 water rat. The situation of its nest may 

 be known by the bones of fish which are 

 strewn about the orifice. It has a sharp 

 and shrill cry. Although destructive to 

 small fish, the kingfisher is always tolerated 

 FIG. n 5 i -Kingfisher. f or ^ Q beauty of its plumage. I have seen 



it through the greenhouse windows sitting on our breeding boxes, 

 and in spring the birds have terrible combats for the mastery. 



The merry Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus, fig. 1152), the "messenger of 

 spring," visits our grounds every year, and frequents the high trees on 

 the north-east side of the garden. Some years ago I remember a sur- 

 prising number of young birds to have been bred at the Horse-shoe 

 Point on the river Lee, at Upper Clapton ; and though more than a 

 dozen were shot, yet every day a great cuckoo might be seen being 



