CHAPTEE X 



SWALLOWS AND CHURCHES 



Abundance of swallows in downland villages — The swallow's bat- 

 like faculty — Old house at Ditchling — Church owls and Ditch- 

 ling Church — Shingled spires — Pleasure of finding churches 

 open — A strange memorial in a downland church — A nap in. 

 West Firle churchyard — Slow-worms in churchyards — Increase 

 of swallows at Ditchling — House-martins on telegraph wires — 

 The telegraph a benefit to birds — Telegraph poles in the land- 

 scape — Sound of telegraph wires — A cockney's bird-lore — A 

 Sussex man on swifts — Swifts rising from a flat surface — The 

 swift mystery — Swifts at Seaford — A Somerset bird-boy's 

 strange story. 



The down country appears to have a great attraction for 

 tlie swallow, house-martin, and swift. One must group 

 these three together. The last is swaUow-like in his 

 appearance and aerial habits, and to the popular mind 

 is, and always wiU be, a swallow. It may be that the 

 causes which have resulted in a decrease in the number 

 of these birds in many other parts of the country are 

 local, and have not affected this district. At all events, 

 during the last few years these species, although de- 

 clining elsewhere, have been exceedingly abundant in 

 the villages and hamlets among and at the foot of the 

 downs. At some spots where they most abounded, 

 looking down on the village from a high window or 

 other elevation, the effect was produced of a multitude 



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