24 



watched them, and noticed the old birds hovering over the top of the stack before 

 descending, and from what I have now seen I am convinced that the Swallow descends 

 to the nest with upraised wings, dropping styaight down to any depth necessary. I 

 have often caught the young birds which had fallen into the rooms from these great 

 chimneys, having no doubt attempted the ascent from the nest before they were able or 

 strong enough. 



" In the third great stack I found two nests. One was eleven feet two inches from 

 the top, and the lower portion of it was many years old, showing that several nests had 

 been added to it, and this year's neAV work was easily recognizable ; the young had been 

 reared in it." 



In the ' Times ' for the 17th of September, 1888, occurs the following note from a 

 " Traveller " : — " For scA'cral successive years a pair of Swallows erected their nest on 

 the three prongs of a dungfork (the wooden handle of which had broken off), which 

 was placed horizontally, so as to project from the side of the shed. During the winter 

 of 1886 a gig-lamp which had been deprived of its door was suspended in the shed. 

 Last summer the birds selected it as their residence, which proved so much to their 

 satisfaction as to induce them to adopt it again during the present year. The shed 

 stands in the parish of Pagham, not far distant from Bognor, where the lamp and its 

 recently vacated nest may still be seen." 



Mr. Hume, in his ' Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds,' gives the following carefully- 

 written account of the eggs of the Swallow as observed by him during his many years' 

 residence in India : — " The eggs of this species," he writes, " vary very much in size and 

 a good deal in shape. Typically they are elongated ovals, a good deal compressed 

 towards the smaller end. The cubic contents of some eggs must be nearly double those 

 of others. The shell is very fine and compact, and has, in some eggs, a slight gloss. 

 The ground-colour varies from pure white to a pale salmon-pink, but in the majority it 

 is white. Typically the eggs are pretty thickly spotted and speckled with brownish red 

 and inky purple, the markings being always most numerous, and at times very dense, 

 towards the large end, where they occasionally form an irregular zone. Sometimes the 

 brownish red is replaced by a slightly reddish olive-brown. In some eggs the markings 

 want the speckly, spotty character of the typical egg, and are merely pale inky-purple and 

 brownish-red clouds. In some, again, the markings are, as a whole, much more minute, 

 and the whole surface of the egg is finely freckled and mottled with pale brownish red. 

 " In size the eggs vary from 0"7 to 0"81 inch in length, and from 0"5 to 0"55 inch in 

 breadth ; but the average of seventeen eggs is 0-76 by 0'53 incli." 



The'figures of the adult and young birds have been taken from specimens procured 

 by Mr. Wyatt, and the third Plate represents a moulting bird in its winter home in 

 South Africa, showing the contrast betAveen the worn-out plumage of the previous 

 season and the bright blue plumage which the bird assumes before it leaves for Europe. 

 This individual is in. the British Museum. 



Eor the geographical distribution of this species vide infra, Plate 43 [Map]. 



