May 



and five eggs shown in the picture. The slight but 

 deep and well-rounded structure was slung in a bed 

 of nettles and hedge parsley, some of the grass stems 

 forming the outer rim of the nest being passed round 

 the stalks of these weeds, and re-introduced beyond. 

 Whilst the female sat thus embowered at the foot of 

 the hedge, the cock kept up a continuous prattle in a 

 tree which overshadowed the whole. When I ap- 

 proached the nest, he gave no signal beyond ceasing 

 to sing ; and the hen bird a very close sitter 

 seldom crept from the nest into a bramble hard by 

 until I was quite near. 



Although advised from the south of England as 

 far back as the end of March, it was not until the 

 2nd May that a few swallows and house-martins 

 were observed at Ashley, just over the Cheshire 

 border. These flew low on the lee side of a wood, 

 perching more frequently and longer than is cus- 

 tomary with them. It required nine days more 

 the nth May for these two species to put in an 

 appearance in the more open ground about Stretford. 

 As time went on I noted a very distinct deficiency in 

 the number of these birds as compared with former 

 years, a fact rendered stranger when the swift arrived 

 on the 1 6th May, and continued to increase during 

 the month until its numbers were just as notably in 

 excess of those to which we had been accustomed in 

 our parts. This seemed the more remarkable, since 

 the swift is known to return year after year to its 

 old haunt ; but so many swifts certainly never nested 



145 L 



