BIRDS' NESTS. 95 



Wagtail, so that it is not safe to decide on the 

 species to which any particular nest belongs, 

 unless the old bird has been observed to quit it. 



CHIMNEY SWALLOW. Hirundo rustica. 



PLATE II. PIG. 1. 



So great is my respect for this the most 

 welcome of all our summer visitants, that I 

 have never voluntarily intruded on its privacy. 

 The only nest, indeed, which I have seen, is 

 that figured in the cut. One of the laths 

 supporting the roof of an outhouse, intended 

 for a calf-pen, had been accidentally broken, 

 so as to be suspended by only one extremity. 

 To this a pair of swallows had, with great 

 masonic skill, attached the birth-place of their 

 future brood. Seemingly well assured that 

 both the lath was strong enough to support 

 their dwelling, and that the disaster which 

 had befallen one end of it, would not happen 

 to the other, they laid a solid foundation of 

 mud, bits of straw, and roots, working the 



