THE SWALLOW. 31 
isolated houses, and cottages; but it rarely penetrates far into the larger towns. 
It places its nest in various situations—on joists of barns, out-houses, boat-houses, 
in which case the form of the nest varies from an oval to a half-, or quarter-cup ; 
against perpendicular walls under eaves of barns*; inside chimneys, wells, and 
mines; in corners of pillared porticoes to large houses; under rustic bridges; cases 
have even been recorded of nests built in a hole in a tree about thirty feet from 
the ground, and in the forking branch of a sycamore. In its wild state in 
mountainous or rocky localities this bird naturally builds against the sides of cliffs 
under overhanging ledges of rock, or in caves; but in Great Britain it usually 
seeks the habitations of men for nesting-sites. 
The nest is always open above; the walls thick, and formed of mud-pellets 
mixed with straw, hay, or hair; the lining consists of fine grass-stems, usually 
almost concealed by a quantity of feathers, though in some instances these are 
absent. 
As is usually the case with nests more or less exposed to light from above, 
the eggs are not wholly white and immaculate, the ground-colour is pure white, 
appearing rosy when not incubated; speckled, spotted, and occasionally heavily 
blotched with deep pitchy brown, often intermixed with sienna reddish spots, and 
with lavender grey shell-spots; in some eggs the spots are small and tolerably 
evenly distributed over the entire surface, sometimes they are larger, and principally 
collected at the larger end; sometimes there is an imperfect zone of spots, and 
even large blotches near the larger end: some eggs are elongated ovals, others 
short and well-formed. 
The Swallow when approaching its nest always utters a plaintive warning 
note, the intention of which doubtless is, to call the attention of its young to its 
advent; but this call is uttered even before the eggs are deposited, and is continued 
after the nest has been robbed: this has given the impression to unobservant 
persons that the parents mourn over the loss of their possessions. 
Seebohm asserts that the Swallow builds a fresh nest every year; but I have 
proved conclusively that, when built under the shelter of a portico, where it is 
protected from wet, the same nest is sometimes used for three consecutive years; 
indeed I have in my collection a nest with the clutches of eggs which it contained 
in June 1881 and 1883: in 1882 1 was forbidden to touch the eggs because the 
lady of the house said “the poor birds cried every time they approached the nest” + 
* Seebohm had an idea that this method of building was confined to the Continent, but I have found it 
equally common in Kent. 
+ In my “Handbook of British Oology,” I spoke of ¢wo successive years, forgetting that an interval had 
elapsed between the taking of the two clutches; but an examination of the dates on the eggs reminded me of 
the fact. 
