214 THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 



his own fellows and the Martins about him ; who pursue in a body 

 and strike their enemy, till they have driven him from the place, 

 darting down upon his back, and rising in a perpendicular line in per- 

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

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



Wonderful is the address, Mr. White justly observes, which this 

 adroit bird exhibits in ascending and decending with security through 

 the narrow passage of a chimney. When hovering over the mouth 

 of the funnel, the vibrations of its wings acting on the confined air, 

 occasion a rumbling like distant thunder. It is not improbable that 

 the dam submits to the inconvenience of having her nest low down ia 

 the shaft, in order to have her broods secure from rapacious birds ; 

 and particularly from Owls, which are frequently found to fall down 

 chimneys, probably in their attempts to get at the nestlings. 



Professor Kalm, in his Travels in America, says, that a very 

 reputable lady and her children related to him the following story 

 respecting these birds, assuring him at the same time that they were 

 all eye-witnesses to the fact : " A couple of Swallows built their nest 

 in the stable belonging to the lady ; and the female laid eggs in the 

 nest, and was about to brood them. Some days afterwards the people 

 saw the female still sitting on the eggs : but the male flying about the 

 nest, and sometimes settling on a nail, was heard to utter a very 

 plaintive note, which betrayed his uneasiness. On a nearer examina- 

 tion, the female was found dead in the nest ; and the people flung her 

 body away. The male then went to sit upon the eggs ; but after 

 being about two hours on them, and perhaps finding the business too 

 troublesome, he went out, and returned in the afternoon with another 

 female, which sat upon the nest, and afterwards fed the young-ones, 

 till they were able to provide for themselves." 



At Camerton Hall, near Bath, a pair of Swallows built their nest on 

 the upper part of the frame of an old picture over the chimney-piece ; 

 entering through a broken pane in the window of the room. They 

 came three years successively ; and in all probability would have con- 

 tinued to do so, had not the room been put in repair, which prevented 

 their access to it. 



Another pair were known to build for two successive years on 

 tbe handles of a pair of garden shears, that were stuck up against the 

 boards in an out-house ; and therefore must have had their nest spoiled 

 whenever the implement was wanted. And what is still more strange, 

 a bird of the same species built its nest on the wings and body of an 

 Owl, that happened to hang dead and dry from the rafter of a barn 

 and so loose as to be moved by every gust of wind. This Owl, witli 

 the nest on its. wings, and with eggs in the nest, was taken as a curi- 

 osity to the museum of S*ir Ash ton Lever. That gentleman, struck 

 with the singularity of the sight, furnished the person who brought 

 it with a large shell, desiring him to fix it just where the Owl had 

 hung. The man did so ; and in the following year a pair of Swallows, 

 probably the same, built their nest in the shell, and laid eggs. 



" By the myriads of insects, which every single brood of Swallows 

 destroy, in the course of a summer, these birds defend us in a great 



