546 CHIMNEY SWALLOW. Class II. 



soon as they succeed, they perch for a few days 

 on the chimney top, and are there fed by their 

 parents. Their next essay is to reach some 

 leafless bough, where they sit in rows, and 

 receive their food. Soon after they take to the 

 wing, but still want skill to seize their own prey. 

 They hover near the place where their parents 

 are in chase of flies, attend their motions, meet 

 them, and receive from their mouths the offered 

 sustenance. 



It has a sweet note, which it emits in August 

 and Septemhtr, perching on house tops. 



[Swallows appear in Greece from the 1 6th of 

 March to the ^d of April, and are accompanied 

 or soon followed by the Martins. Ed.] 



" They are found every where on the old 

 continent, and may be traced to India and Ja- 

 pan, and at Newfoundland, and other parts of 

 North America. Two instances of the capri- 

 ciousness of the swallow are on record. One 

 in the museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever, 

 in which was the nest made in the dead body of 

 an owl nailed against a barn. After the young 

 were flown, Sir Ashton substituted a large shell 

 in the place of the owl, and in the following sea- 

 son had the satisfaction of seeing a nest made 

 in the shell, supposed by the same pair of birds. 

 At Camerton Hall^ near Bath, a pair built a 



