Swallows 125 



hurry the dull blue colour of the gate may have deceived 

 her sight ; but she must have travelled that way a hundred 

 times before. 



Swallows frequently come down the great chimneys at 

 the farmhouse and are found in the rooms, but are always 

 allowed to escape from the window. Swallows are said 

 not to perch ; but I have seen them repeatedly perch on 

 those sticks which, where the thatch has somewhat decayed, 

 project a few inches above the roof-tree. Sometimes a 

 row of half a dozen may be observed settled on the roof 

 here. You may see them, too, perch on the topmost 

 boughs of the tall damson trees in the orchard ; and again, 

 later in the autumn, after nesting is over, they assemble in 

 hundreds — one might almost say thousands — in the withy 

 bed by the brook, settling on the slender willow wands. 

 There they twitter together for an hour or more every 

 evening. They can rise without the slightest difficulty 

 from the ground, if it is level and not encumbered with 

 grass, as from the surface of the roads. On dull cold days 

 they settle on the house more frequently than when it is 

 bright and sunny. 



At one end of the farmhouse, which is an irregular 

 building, there is a quiet gable, and in it a casement 

 arched over by the thatch, and shaded by a thick growth 

 of ivy. The casement is low, and not more than eight or 

 nine feet from the ground ; the ivy has climbed the wall, 

 it has spread, too, over the massive wall of the garden 

 which just there abuts upon the house, so that there is a 

 secluded corner formed by the angle. Here some time ago 

 a number of logs of timber — oak, such as are sawn up into 

 posts for field gateways — were left leaning half against the 

 garden wall, half against the house, just under the window. 

 There they have remained (there is never any hurry about 



