380 HIRUNDINIDiE. 



heat alone, I can hardly agree with White in believing.* In 

 Sweden, it is called Laclu Swala, or barn swallow, from selecting 

 the bam for its nest ; in southern countries, as Italy, similar sites 

 are preferred, as we have indeed learned from Virgil, and to the 

 correctness of which, I can myself bear testimony. In the Morea 

 likewise, within the town of Patras, I remarked in June, 1841, 

 that they selected places similar to those chosen in the north of Ire- 

 land, their nests being built under the rude porticos in the streets. 

 One or two peculiar instances of the nidification of the swallow 

 in the neighbourhood of Belfast may be mentioned. In the 

 summers of 1831 and 1832, a pair of these birds built their nest 

 in a house at Wolf- lull, although the door by which alone they 

 could enter, was locked every evening, and not opened before 

 six in the morning; being an early-rising species, they must 

 consequently have thus lost for no inconsiderable part of the 

 season fully three hours every day. A similar fact is mentioned 

 in Capt. Cook's Sketches in Spain (vol. ii. p. 275), where it is 

 stated that ' c in the southern provinces they [swallows] sometimes 

 live in the posadas, their nests being built on the rafters, where 

 they are shut up every night/' In the Northern Wing (a Belfast 

 newspaper) of July 2nd, 1829, the following paragraph appeared : 

 — " We understand that a pair of swallows have built their nest 

 in Mr. Getty's school-room, at Eandalstown ; and notwithstanding 

 there are above forty scholars daily attending, the birds fearlessly 

 went on with their labour, and now have their young ones out. 

 One of the windows had been for several nights left down, at 



* A singular preference to chimneys, though not for the purpose of building in 

 them, was noticed on the following occasions :— 



On the 6th of August, 1845, a great number of swallows appeared flying to the 

 top of a tall " stalk " or chimney (perhaps eighty feet in height), isolated from other 

 buildings, and rising from a green mound in the neighbourhood of Belfast. The day 

 was close and warm, but the heat about the funnel (whence smoke issued) might have 

 tempted some particular insects to the spot. There was a constant stream or hue of 

 birds ascending and descending : their flight had a most singular appearance, from 

 the circumstance of their flying upwards from the ground to the chimney-top almost 

 in a vertical line, and coming down in a similar manner. So regular were they in 

 series, and so vertically disposed, as at once to remind me of a rope ladder up the 

 mast of a ship ; really not too extravagant a simile. On the 8th of September, a 

 calm warm day, I observed numbers^ of swallows and house-martins flying in like 

 manner, but not so vertically, to and from the top of a lofty chimney connected with 

 a manufactory on the river- side at Dundalk. 



