26'0 NATURAL HISTORY 



hand, than return for a week or two only to warmer 

 latitudes. 



The swallow, though called the chimney-swallow, by 

 no means builds altogether in chimneys, but often within 

 barns and outhouses against the rafters; and so she did 

 in Virgil's time. 



" Ante 



Garrula quaro tignis nidos suspendat hirundo." 



In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called ladu 

 swala, the barn-swallow. Besides, in the warmer parts 

 of Europe there are no chimneys to houses except they 

 are English-built : in these countries she constructs her 

 nest in porches, and gateways, and galleries, and open 

 halls. 



Here and there a bird may affect some odd, peculiar 

 place; as we have known a swallow build down the 

 shaft of an old well, through which chalk had been 

 formerly drawn up for the purpose of manure : but in 

 general with us this Hirundo breeds in chimneys ; and 

 loves to haunt those stacks where there is a constant 

 fire, no doubt for the sake of warmth. Not that it can 

 subsist in the immediate shaft where there is a fire; 

 but prefers one adjoining to that of the kitchen, and 

 disregards the perpetual smoke of that funnel, as I 

 have often observed with some degree of wonder. 



Five or six or more feet down the chimney, does this 

 little bird begin to form her nest about the middle of 

 May, which consists, like that of the house martin, of 

 a crust or shell composed of dirt or mud, mixed with 

 short pieces of straw, to render it tough and permanent ; 

 with this difference, that whereas the shell of the martin 

 is nearly hemispheric, that of the swallow is open at 

 the top, and like half a deep dish : this nest is lined 

 with fine grasses, and feathers which are often collected 

 as they float in the air. 



Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird 

 shows all day long in ascending and descending -with 



