CAVE SWALLOW. 67 



Secretary's Office, from time immemorial ; but it 

 was not in consequence of any molestation there, 

 that in the Year of Freedom, they chose the vice- 

 regal abode. Did they then recognise the adminis- 

 trator of England's power as the friend of Jamaica ? 

 In December, January, and February, the birds, 

 though they fly in and out of the august abode 

 without reserve, as if to maintain their right of way, 

 do not make use of the nests ; but all the rest of the 

 year, these mud habitations are occupied. In March 

 the old birds begin to repair and tenant their former 

 nests ; but the young, having no home ready made, 

 are compelled to wait until the May rains have 

 moistened the earth in the roads, to afford them 

 mud for their structures. 



But as soon as these seasonal changes have taken 

 place, these birds may be seen congregated on the 

 roads, in groups of fifty together, huddled at the 

 edges of the pools formed by the daily rains, and in 

 those places where the power of the morning sun has 

 already evaporated the water, and the mud has 

 begun to acquire a stiffness of consistence, which 

 probably is more suitable for moulding to their 

 nests. As they alight to pick up the pellets, their 

 wings are held nearly perpendicularly over the back, 

 and they are incessantly fluttering about, apparently 

 hindering one another by their crowding. Many 

 may be seen engaged, where the pools are a little 

 wider, or where the streams that cross the road 

 dilate into a broad surface, in sweeping backward 

 and forward over the water, which at every turn 

 they just kiss with their beaks. I know not whether 

 they are drinking, or capturing minute surface insects. 



