124 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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 intro- 

 duced 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 business of a second 

 brood as soon as she is disengaged from her first ; which at once associ- 

 ates with the first broods of house-martins ; and with them congregates, 

 clustering on sunny roofs, towers, and trees. This hirundo brings out 

 her second brood towards the middle and end of August* 



All the summer long is the swallow a> most instructive pattern of 

 unwearied industry and affection ; for, from morning to night, while 

 there is a family to be supported, she spends the whole day in skimming 

 close to the ground, and exerting the most sudden turns and quick 

 evolutions. Avenues, and long walks under hedges, and pasture-fields, 

 and mown meadows where cattle graze, are her delight, especially if 

 there are trees interspersed ; because in such spots insects most abound. 

 When a fly is taken a smart snap from her bill is heard, resembling the 

 noise at the shutting of a watch-case ; but the motion of the mandibles 

 are too quick for the eye. 



The swallow, probably the male bird, is the excuUtor to house-martins, 

 and other little birds, announcing the approach of birds of prey. For 

 as soon as a hawk appears, with a shrill alarming note he calls all the 

 swallows and martins about him ; who pursue in a body, and buffet and 

 strike their enemy till they have driven him from the village, darting 

 down from above on his back, and rising in a perpendicular line in 

 perfect security. This bird also will sound the alarm, and strike at cats 

 when they climb on the roofs of houses, or otherwise approach the nests. 

 Each species of hirundo drinks as it flies along, sipping the surface of 

 the water; but the swallow alone, in general, washes on the wing, 

 by dropping into a pool for many times together : in very hot weather 

 house-martins and bank-martins dip and wash a little. 



The swallow is a delicate songster, and in soft sunny weather sings 

 both perching and flying; on trees in a kind of concert, and on chimney 

 tops : is also a bold flyer, ranging to distant downs and commons even 

 in windy weather, which the other species seem much to dislike ; nay, 

 even frequenting exposed sea-port towns, and making little excursions 



