62 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 
fly away. In a few minutes both were back again, 
and one seemed to be taking mud, whilst the 
other kept searching for just the right-sized bit 
of dry grass or straw; it took up many bits, but 
they did not seem to satisfy the requirements 
and were dropped, till just the right-sized piece 
was forthcoming. So it is clear they must start 
nesting very early, and pretty certainly will have, 
as our British bird does, two broods in the season. 
There is practically little or no difference in the 
habits of either of these two Swallows—the one 
might be the other—and though I have watched 
them long and carefully, I am unable to recall 
any single peculiarity that our Swallow has from 
the Egyptian. Both alike have that habit of 
dipping momentarily into the water, then rising 
for a short distance, and again fluttering down on 
to the surface with a slight splash, and both kinds 
seem to have boundless energy and strength, 
tearing up and down incessantly by the hour 
together. So many birds rest in flight by making 
long sweeping curves with rigidly outstretched 
wings. Kites and Vultures are great exponents 
of this power, but the Swallows, though they can 
do it of course, are nearly all the day careering 
in headlong flight with restless energy, and the 
