Class II. CHIMNEY SWALLOW. .045 



the others marked transversely near their ends 

 with a white spot. The exterior feathers of the 

 tail are much longer in the male than in the 

 female. 



Their food is the same with that of the 

 others of the genus, viz. insects ; for the tak- 

 ing of which in their swiftest flight, nature 

 hath admirably contrived their several parts ; 

 their mouths are very wide; their wings are 

 long, and adapted for distant and continual 

 flight, and their tails are forked, to enable 

 them to turn the readier in pursuit of their 

 prey. This species, in our country, builds 

 in chimneys, and makes its nest of clay 

 mixed with straw, leaving the top quite 

 open. It lines the bottom with feathers and 

 grasses ; and usually lays from four to six eggs, 

 white speckled with red ; but by taking away 

 one of the eggs daily, it will successively lay as 

 far as nineteen, as Doctor Lister has expe- 

 rienced. It breeds earlier than any other 

 species. The first brood are observed to quit 

 the nest the last week in June, or the first in 

 July ; the last brood towards the middle or 

 end of August. The nest being fixed five or 

 six feet deep within the chimney, it is with dif- 

 ficulty that the young can emerge. They even 

 sometimes fall into the rooms below ; but as 



vol. i. 2 n . 



