shows all day long- in ascending and descending 

 with security through so narrow a pass. When hov- 

 ering over the mouth of the funnel, the vibration of 

 her wings acting on the confined air occasions a rum- 

 bling 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 rapa- 

 cious birds, and particularly from owls, which fre- 

 quently 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 great 

 assiduity, and may then be called perchers. 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 cer- 

 tain 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 per- 



