OF SELBORNE. 287 



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 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 bu sines of a second brood as soon as 

 she is disengaged from her first ; which at 

 once associates with the first broods oi house- 



