192 NATURAL HISTORY 



Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird shows all 

 day long in ascending and descending with security through 

 so narrow a pass. When hovering over the mouth of the 

 funnel, the vibrations of her wings acting on the confined 

 air occasion a rumbling like thunder. It is not improbable 

 that the dam submits to this inconvenient situation so low 

 in the shaft, in order to secure her broods from rapacious 

 birds, 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 introduced 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 perch ers. 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 associates with the first broods of house mar- 

 tins ; 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, 



