88 



VEllTEBRATA. 



NEST OF TUE COMMON EUROPEAN SWALLOW. 



ft brick or tile. Ik-iici' this l.inl is called Hironddle de Chcmlnee by the French. It builds, how- 

 ever, in various other situations, as in the mouths of old wells and uiiused mines, under the roofs 



of barns and sheds, in belfries, sometimes in 

 the fork of a dead tree. A few years ago a 

 pair of them built, for two successive sum- 

 mers, under the sponsons of the paddle-wheels 

 of a steam-tug at Carlisle, England, and suc- 

 ceeded in rearing their young, despite the 

 daily trips of the boat. It is a pleasing and 

 \\ ^ familiar bird, and may be easily tamed. It 

 is distributetl throughout Europe in summer. 

 The House-Martin or Window-Swallow, 

 H. urhica^ is five and a half inches long; 

 above black, with violet reflections ; beneath 

 white — white varieties being sometimes ob- 

 tained; it builds its nests often near the lower 

 cornice of windows, and beneath the eaves of 

 granaries and stables. Like the rest of the 

 family, it has great art in making its nests 

 adhere to the faces of walls, and "White tells 

 us of one that built against a pane of glass. 

 The eggs arc four or five in nimiber; there 

 are usually two broods in a season ; sometimes 

 as many as four. This bird is intimately woven with associations of country life in England ; 

 almost every poet has celebrated it. Shakspeare says, beautifully and descriptively : 



" This guest of summer, 

 The temple-hauntiug martlet, does approve, 

 By his loved masonry, that heaven's breath 

 Smells wooingly here. No jutting frieze, 

 Buttress, or coignes of 'vantage, but this bird 

 Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle : 

 Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 

 The air is delicate." 



Other European species are the Rufuline Swallow, H. rufula — called RousseUne in France — 

 seven inches long, known in the south of Europe and the north of Africa; and the Mountain 

 Swallow, H. rupestris, which builds in the crevices of rocks in the high peaks of the Alps and 

 the Pyrenees. 



The American Barn-Swallow, H. rufa, resembles the common swallow of Europe, being 

 seven inches long; upper parts steel-blue, with purple and green reflections; under parts chest- 

 nut color. They arrive among us in April, and depart in October. The enthusiastic Wilson 

 says : "There are but few persons in the United States unacquainted with this gay, innocent, and 

 active little bird. Indeed, the whole tribe are so distinguished from the rest of small birds, by 

 their sweeping rapidity of flight, their peculiar aerial evolutions of wing over our fields and rivers, 

 and through our very streets, from morning to night, that the light of heaven itself, the sky, the 

 trees, or any other common objects of nature, are not better known than the swallows. We wel- 

 come their first appearance with delight, as the faithful harbingers and companions of flowery 

 spring and ruddy summer; and when, after a long, frost-bound, and boisterous winter, we hear it 

 announced that 'the swallows are come,' what a train of charminsf ideas are associated with the 

 simple tidings! 



"The wonderful activity displayed by these birds forms a striking contrast to the slow habits 

 of most other animals. It may be fairly questioned whether, among the whole feathered tribes 

 which heaven has formed to adorn this part of creation, there be any that, in the same space of 

 time, pass over an equal extent of surface with the swallow. Let a person take his stand, on a 

 fine summer evening, by a new-mown field, meadow, or river-shore, for a short time, and, among 



