210 BRITISH LAND BIRDS. 



reappearance. According to the Greek calendar 

 of Flora, kept by Theophrastus at Athens, the 

 Ornithian winds blow and the swallow comes 

 between the 28th of February, and the 12th of 

 March ; the kite and nightingale appear between 

 the llth and 26th of March ; and the cuckoo 

 appears at the time the young figs come out, and 

 thence his name. Among the Greeks, it seems the 

 crane pointed out the time of sowing ; the arrival 

 of the kite, the time of sheepshearing ; and the 

 swallow, the time to put on summer clothes. 



In Sweden, the swallow builds in barns ; and in 

 the warmer parts of Europe, where there are no 

 chimneys, she constructs her nest in porches, gate- 

 ways, and similar situations. Here she prefers to 

 breed in chimneys, and loves to haunt those stacks 

 where there is a constant fire ; doubtless, for the 

 sake of the warmth. Some five or six feet down 

 the chimney, about the middle of May, this little 

 bird begins to make her nest, composed of mud 

 or dirt, shaped something like half a deep dish, 

 and lined within with grasses and feathers. It 

 has been supposed that the object in selecting such 

 an inconvenient situation for building, is, to secure 

 the young broods from rapacious birds, and par- 

 ticularly owls, which often fall down chimneys, 

 probably in the effort to reach these nestlings. 



The martin nestles in the upper angles of 



