OF SELBORNE 147 



with difficulty enough, and often fall down into the rooms 

 below : for a day or so they are fed on the chimney-top, 

 and then are conducted to the dead leafless bough of some 

 tree, where, sitting in a row, they are attended with great 

 assiduity, and may then be called perchers. In a day or 

 two more they become flyers, but are still unable to take 

 their own food ; therefore they play about near the place 

 where the dams are hawking for flies; and, when a 

 mouthful is collected, at a certain signal given, the dam 

 and the nestling advance, rising towards each other, and 

 meeting at an angle ; the young one all the while uttering 

 such a little quick note of gratitude and complacency, that 

 a person must have paid very little regard to the wonders 

 of Nature that has not often remarked this feat. 



The dam betakes herself immediately to the business of 

 a second brood as soon as she is disengaged from her first; 

 which at once associates with the first broods of house- 

 martins ; and with them congregates, clustering on sunny 

 roofs, towers, and trees. This hirundo brings out her 

 second brood towards the middle and end of August. 



All the summer long is the swallow a most instructive 

 pattern of unwearied industry and affection ; for, from 

 morning to night, while there is a family to be supported, 

 she spends the whole day in skimming close to the ground, 

 and exerting the most sudden turns and quick evolutions. 

 Avenues, and long walks under hedges, and pasture-fields, 

 and mown meadows where cattle graze, are her delight, 

 especially if there are trees interspersed ; because in such 

 spots insects most abound. When a fly is taken a smart 

 snap from her bill is heard, resembling the noise at the 

 shutting of a watch-case ; but the motion of the mandibles 

 are too quick for the eye. 



The swallow, probably the male bird, is the excubitor to 

 house-martins, and other little birds, announcing the 

 approach of birds of prey. For as soon as an hawk 

 appears, with a shrill alarming note he calls all the swal- 

 lows and martins about him ; who pursue in a body, and 

 buffet and strike their enemy till they have driven him 

 from the village, darting down from above on his back. 



