SWALLOWS. !93 



tion; since it is much more probable that a bird 

 should retire to its hybernaculum just at hand, 

 than return for a week or two only to warmer 

 latitudes. 



The swallow, though called the chimney- swal- 

 low, by no means builds altogether in chimneys, 

 but often within barns and out-houses against the 

 rafters : and so she did in Virgil's time 



Ante 



Garrula quam tignis nidos suspendat hirundo." 



In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called 

 ladu swala, the barn-swallow. Besides, in the 

 warmer parts of Europe there are no chimneys to 

 houses, except they are English-built : in these 

 countries she constructs her nest in porches, and 

 gate-ways, and galleries, and open hall?. 



Here and there 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 this 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 differ- 

 ence, that whereas the shell of the martin is nearly 

 o 



