CHIMNEY SWALLOWS 



The Swallow, or Chimney Swallow as it is sometimes 

 called (Hirundo rustica), is the first to return home, usually 

 arriving about the middle of April. It frequents the dwell- 

 ings of men, and is in the habit of nesting under the open 

 roofs of sheds, against the rafters of barns and outhouses, 

 on the cornices of disused rooms, under porches, and even in 

 the tops of chimneys. The last named was its favourite 

 situation in Gilbert White's time, but the modern chimney- 

 stack with its rows of narrow pots and patent cowls 

 must seem sadly inhospitable from the swallow's point of 

 view ! Wherever the nest is placed, it is almost invariably 

 in a situation that affords shelter from rain, which would 

 soon reduce it to a shapeless mass of mud. "Here and 

 there," writes Gilbert White, " 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 the 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. 



