OF SELBOENE. 191 



much more in favour of hiding than migration ; since it is 

 much more probable that a bird should retire to its hyber- 

 naculum just at hand, than return for a week or two only to 

 warmer latitudes. 



The swallow, though called the chimney-swallow, by no 

 means builds altogether in chimneys, but often within 

 barns and outhouses against the rafters ; and so she did in 



Virgil's time: 



" Ante .... 



Oarrula quam tignis nidos suspendat hirundo." 



In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called ladu wcala,, 

 the barn-swallow. Besides, in the warmer parts of Europe 

 there are no chimneys to houses except they are English- 

 built : in these countries she constructs her nest in porches, 

 and gateways, and galleries, and open halls. 



Here and there a bird may affect some odd, peculiar 

 place ; as we have known a swallow build down the shaft 

 of an old well, through which chalk had been formerly 

 drawn up for the purpose of manure : but in general with 

 us this Hirundo breeds in chimneys ; and loves to haunt 

 those stacks where there is a constant fire, no doubt for the 

 sake of warmth. Not that it can subsist in the immediate 

 shaft where there is a fire ; but prefers one adjoining to that 

 of the kitchen, and disregards the perpetual smoke of that 

 funnel, as I have often observed with some degree of 

 wonder. 



Five or six or more feet down the chimney, does this little 

 bird begin to form her nest about the middle of May, which 

 consists, like that of the house martin, of a crust or shell 

 composed of dirt or mud, mixed with short pieces of straw, 

 to render it tough and permanent ; with this difference, that 

 whereas the shell of the martin is nearly hemispheric, that 

 of the swallow is open at the top, and like half a deep dish : 

 this nest is lined with fine grasses, and feathers which are 

 often collected as they float in the air. 



is very doubtful whether the swallows which appear unseasonably for a 

 few days do not perish when they are said to withdraw. " I do not 

 see," he says, " how they are identified when they are supposed to re- 

 appear in due time." ED. 



