COMMON BARN SWALLOW. 413 



" In the corner of Boghead coal-house, and within two yards of the 

 kitchen window, for several years a pair of these birds occupied the 

 same nest. Although the servants passed and repassed within a few 

 inches of it almost every hour of the day, and often during night car- 

 ried a candle, they appeared not to have been in the least degree 

 alarmed, as they always reared two families each season. Having, 

 however, in August last, attempted to catch them, they did not pay me 

 their usual visit this summer. 



" In Scotland, at least so far as it has come under my notice, barns 

 and outhouses are the places in which they generally build. In this 

 neighbourhood, indeed, there is scarcely one to which these birds have 

 a proper access without them ; and as they are seldom disturbed, they 

 usually revisit their old haunts. 



" For their residence, they sometimes make choice of singular si- 

 tuations. In July last, upon two wooden pegs in the wall of the 

 laundry of Balbardie House, Linlithgowshire, and within three feet of 

 the chimney, a pair of these birds built their nest. In consequence of 

 the house having been for some time past unoccupied, and the door left 

 a few inches open for the admittance of air, through this narrow pas- 

 sage they flew in and out with the greatest dexterity. 



" In a large unfinished room of a house belonging to me in the pa^ 

 rish of Whitburn, nine or ten pairs of them have for several successive 

 years taken up their dwelling ; although their nests were close to one 

 another, yet in this social and happy community the greatest harmony 

 prevailed. 



" In the inside of the skylight of the upper loft of Gordon mill, 

 Berwickshire, a pair of them built their nest. They flew into the 

 room through a broken pane in the window. As the hole by which 

 they entered was very small, it cost them a great deal of trouble to in- 

 duce their young when ripe to make their escape. By holding flies in 

 their bills at the outside of the pane they at length succeeded. From 

 this snug retreat, they, for eight or nine days, flew out every morning 

 and returned in the evening, in which they with their parents roosted 

 during the night. 



" Upon the face of a farret-brae, or bank produced by the cutting 

 of peats, in Heatherfield moss, a few years ago, a pair erected their 

 nest, which they occupied for two successive summers. 



" In the shafts of deserted coal-pits they frequently build. 



