SWALLOWS. 175 



case of the two dreadful springs of 1770 and 1771, they 

 immediately withdraw for a time ; a circumstance this, much 

 more ia favour of hiding than migration ; siace it is much 

 more probable that a bird should retire to its hybernaculum 

 just at hand, than return for a week or two only to warmer 

 latitudes. 



The swallow, though called the chimney-swallow, by no 

 means builds altogether in chimneys, but often within barns 

 and out-houses, against the rafters ; and so she did in Virgil's 

 time, — 



'Ante 



Qarrula quiim tignis nidos suspendat hinmdo.'' 



" Before the noisy swallow's nest depends, 

 From the strong beam that through the roof extends." 



In Sweden, she builds in barns, and is caUed ladu swala 

 (the bam-swaEow.) Besides, in the warmer parts of Europe, 

 there are no chimneys to houses, except they are English- 

 built. In these countries she constructs her nest in porches, 

 and gateways, and galleries, and open halls.* 



Here and there a bird may affect some odd, peculiar place ; 

 as we have known a swallow buUd down the shaft of an old 

 well, through which chalk had been formerly drawn up, for 

 the purpose of manure ; but, in general, with us this hirimdo 

 breeds in chimneys, and loves to haunt those stacks where 

 there is a constant fire — no doubt for the sake of warmth. 

 Not that it can subsist in the immediate shaft where there 

 is a fire ; but prefers one adjoining to that of the kitchen, 

 and disregards the perpetual smoke of that funnel, as I have 

 often observed with some degree of wonder. 



Five or six, or more feet down the chimney, does this little 

 bird begin to form her nest, about the middle of May, which 

 consists, like that of the house-martin, of a crust or shtU 

 composed of dirt ,or mud, mixed with short pieces of straw, 

 to render it tough and permanent ; with this difference, that 

 whereas the shell of the martin is nearly hemispheric, that 

 of the swallow is open at the top, and like half a deep dish : 



* I have known a swallow make its nest on the knocker of the hall-door 

 at Pipe Hall, in Warwickshire ; and in a low archway through which the 

 water was conducted from a mill-wheel near Dover. — Ed. 



