344 OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



^' In the autumn of the same year, the farmer 

 returning from shooting, with his gun loaded, 

 tlioughtlessly discharged it at a swallow, which he 

 killed. The circumstance passed without com- 

 ment, until the summer of the following year, 

 when from the absence of his old favourites it 

 occuiTcd to him that the poor bird so wantonly 

 killed must have been one of the pair. 



" In the summer of 1832, a pair of birds, the 

 offspring, probably, of the former occupants reared 

 in the passage, were again observed frequenting 

 their old hamit. They first attempted to fix 

 their nest against a cupboard door, immediately 

 over the door leading into the kitchen; and the 

 farmer's wife, fearing it might be shaken down, 

 from the closing or opening of the door, (for it 

 was partly open when the nest was begun,) drove 

 a nail beneath to secure it in its position. How- 

 ever, the swallows did not approve of this inter- 

 ference; they forsook their nest, and commenced 

 a second over the kitchen door; but this they 

 could not secure. The thought now struck the 

 farmer, that if the nest of 1830, wliich still re- 

 mained on the bell-wire, were removed, the birds 

 would adopt their old situation. This was accord- 



