118 SWALLOWS, MARTINS AND SWIFTS 



hatched. They increased in bulk until their quarters 

 must have proved inconveniently tight. It would have 

 been very interesting to see their first flight, but, 

 despite considerable, if intermittent, vigilance this was 

 denied us. No doubt J. Henri Fabre, whose patience 

 was inexhaustible, would have risen before the summer 

 sun and watched until its setting, and so have suc- 

 ceeded in witnessing what I have never seen described. 

 One morning, however, we discovered the quartette of 

 fledglings seated in a row on the dripstone of a window 

 about ten yards distant from the nest, whither they 

 could not have gone except by flight. Here the parent 

 birds incessantly visited and fed them. At nightfall 

 they were all back in the nest, and on the third day 

 they were flying about strongly, hawking flies on their 

 own account. But at the time this note is being 

 penned, they return each evening and tuck themselves 

 into their birthplace, which by this time is a sorely 

 dilapidated lodging. 



The true swallow of our islands (Hirundo rustica) 

 is often popularly confused with the house-martin 

 (Chelidon urbica), and most of the announcements 

 which appear annually in the newspapers about the 

 arrival of 'the first swallow' may be interpreted as 

 indicating the house-martin. There should be no 

 difficulty in distinguishing between the two species, 

 the underparts and rump of the house-martin being 

 pure white, and its wings and tail-feathers much shorter 

 than the swallow's. The nest of the house-martin is a 

 much more substantial affair than the frail half-saucer 

 of the swallow, and is often built on inland crags and 



