THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 239 



selves witli suspending them at the end of a pahn-tree leaf 

 which is just touched by a sheet of water. Some birds 

 only build in the depth of caverns, or in the midst of ruins 

 never trodden by the foot of man; to escape all notice is 

 with them an imperious necessity. On the contrary, there 

 are some which like to be near us. Quite assured of the 

 affection we feel for them, and full of confidence, they 

 enter our dwellings as if they belonged to the household, 

 and in spite of the noise and uproar about them, sleep 

 peacefully in the cradle they have hung there. 



The SAvallows seem to know instinctively that no person 

 would dare to do them harm. Almost all the other species 

 flee us; they alone install themselves securely near us: 

 they are our guests. 



The chimney-swallow, the nest of which is represented 

 further on, built its nest in the centre of a foundry 

 belonging to an esteemed friend of mine, in the vault of a 

 forge in full work, without being alarmed either at the 

 fierceness of the fire, the torrents of smoke, or the con- 

 tinual clang of the hammers. 



In the bird maternal love becomes ingenious in the 

 highest degree. Although the quail and the partridge, 

 like too confident mothers, deposit their young uncovered 

 on the ground, and exjiose them to the rapacity of every 

 carnivorous animal that passes, other species take infinite 

 precautions to defend them. The king-fisher hollows out 

 a deep and winding underground passage to shelter its 

 young. The magpie, to protect its little ones, constructs 

 a regular casemated citadel, into which it enters, and from 

 which it issues merely by a narrow passage,, Only that 

 in lieu of wood-work and earth, the nest is covered with 

 closely interlaced branches, which also defend it against 

 the eagles and falcons, the brigands of the air. 



