288 HISTORY OF 



swallow, which builds it on the tops of chimneys. The martin 

 sticks it to the eaves of houses. The goatsucker, as we are toki, 

 builds it on the bare ground. This nest is built with mud from 

 some neighbouring brook, well tempered with the bill, moist- 



they will not be able to make their clay adhere to the wall, and being once 

 foiled, they will not renew their attempt for some years afterwards. 



The Anglo-Americans have many contrivances for enticing birds to bnild 

 near their houses. Being peculiarly partial to the barn-s«'allow, they fix 

 up boxes for it to nestle in. This species is considerably different from our 

 chimney swallow, and is of a bright chesnut colour on the belly and vent, 

 where ours is pure white ; but it resembles it in its habits of nestling oi> 

 the rafters or beams of sheds, barns, and other outhouses, though not in 

 chimneys. 



Wilson has given some interesting characteristic traits in the history of 

 this bird. " On the 16th of May," says he, " being on a shooting expedition 

 on the top of Pocano moimtain, Northampton, when the ice on that and on 

 several successive mornings was more than a quarter of an inch thick, 1 

 observed with surprise a pair of these swallows which had taken up their 

 abode on a miserable cabin there. It was about sunrise, the ground wan 

 vi'hite with hoar-frost, and the male was twittering on the roof by the sidn 

 of his mate with great sprightliness. The man of tlie house told me, that & 

 single pair came regulai-ly there every season, and built their nest on a pro 

 jecting beam under the eaves, about six or seven feet from the ground. A« 

 the bottom of the mountain, in a large barn belonging to the tavern there, 

 I counted upwards of twenty nests, all seemingly occupied. In the woods 

 they are never met with ; but as you approach a farm they soon catch the 

 eye, cutting their gambols in the air. Scarcely a barn, to which these birds 

 can find access, is without them ; and as public feeling is universally in their 

 favour, they are seldom or never disturbed. The proprietor of the barn last 

 mentioned, a German, assured me, that if a man permitted swallows to be 

 shot, his cows would give bloody milk, and also, that no barn where swal- 

 lows frequented would ever be struck with lightning. 



" Early in May," continues Wilson, " they begin to build. From the size 

 and structure of the nest, it is nearly a week before it is completely finished. 

 One of these nests, taken on the 21st of June from the rafter to which it was 

 closely attached, is now lying before me. It is in the form of an inverted 

 cone, with a perpendicular section cut off on that side by which it adhered 

 to the wood. At the top, it has an extension of the edge or offset, for the 

 male or female to sit on occasionally, as appeared by the dung ; the upper 

 diameter was about six inches by five, the height externally seven inches. 

 This shell is formed of mud, mixed with fine hay, as plasterers do their mor 

 ter with hair, to make it adhere the better ; the mud seems to have been 

 placed in regular strata or layers, from side to side ; the hollow of this cone 

 (the shell of which is about an inch in thickness) is filled with fine hay, well 

 stuffed in ; above that is laid a handful of very large downy geese feathers. 

 Though it is not uncommon for twenty and even thirty pair to build in the 

 same barn, yet every thing seems to be conducted with great order and af- 

 fection ; all seems harmony among them, as if the interest of each were that 

 uf all. Several nests are often within a few inches of each other j yet no 



