BIRDS' NESTS. 67 



shelter of a human habitation. We have not 

 space to repeat a tenth part of all the interest- 

 ing facts which have been recorded about the 

 architectural skill of this universal favourite, 

 of its wanderings to sunny lands, or of the 

 wonderful constancy with which it returns, 

 year after year, to the same spot, or of the 

 perseverance with which it adheres to its ori- 

 ginal habitation, notwithstanding the repeated 

 heartless efforts made to dislodge it. Better 

 adapted by its nature for perching on the 

 ground than the swift, it may often be seen in 

 summer by the edge of some road-side pond, 

 picking up particles of mud, which it tempers 

 with some natural secretion, and attaches to 

 the wall of a house, preferring the cojner of a 

 window, and always building from the bottom 

 upwards. It lines the inside with straws and 

 broken stems of grass, and finishes off with 

 a layer of wool, hair, feathers, and any other 

 soft materials which it may chance to find 

 near the dwellings of men. The eggs, four 



