NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 163 



of the swallow is open at the top, and like half a deep dish. 

 This nest is lined with fine grasses and feathers, which are 

 oft^^^n collected as they float in the air. 



Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird shows 

 all day long in ascending and descending with security 

 through so narrow a pass. When hovering over the mouth 

 of the funnel, the vibrations of her wings acting on the 

 confined air occasion a rumbling like thunder. It is not 

 improbable that the dam submits to this inconvenient 

 situation so low in the shaft, in order to secure her broods 

 from rapacious birds, and particularly from owls, which 

 frequently fall down chimneys, perhaps in attempting to 

 get at these nestlings. 



The swallow lays from four to six white eggs, dotted with 

 red specks ; and brings out her first brood about the last 

 week in June, or the first week in July. The progressive 

 method by which the young are introduced into life is very 

 amusing : first, they emerge from the shaft with difficulty 

 enough, and often fall down into the rooms below ; for a 

 day or so they are fed on the chimney-top, and then are 

 conducted to the dead, leafless bough of some tree, where, 

 sitting in a row, they are attended with some assiduity, and 

 may then be called pe7'chers. In a day or two more they 

 become flyers^ but are still unable to take their own food ; 

 therefore they play about near the place where the dams 

 are hawking for flies ; and, when a mouthful is collected, at 

 a certain signal given, the dam and the nestling advance, 

 rising towards each other, and meeting at an angle ; the 

 young one all the while uttering such a little quick note of 

 gratitude and complacency, that a person must have paid' 

 very little regard to the wonders of Nature that has not 

 often remarked this feat. 



The dam betakes herself immediately to the business of 



