OR, PLAIN TEACHING. 



115 



nests are open at the top, and are 

 composed of clay or mud, cemen- 

 ted by a glutinous secretion from 

 the mouth of the bird. In the 

 bottom of the nest is placed a 

 little bed of feathers. The eggs 

 are usually five in number, of a 

 white colour, speckled with red- 



dish brown. This is very remark- 

 able : that the swali^w, leaving 

 the green meadows of England, 

 and flying afar to the myrtle and 

 orange groves of Italy, and to 

 the plains of Africa, during the 

 English winter, will return again 

 in April, and repair the old nests. 

 The swallow is very assiduous in 

 attention to her young. As soon 

 as they can quit the nest, she 

 conducts them to the ledge of 

 the house top, and there placing 

 her little ones in a row, she 

 brings them food, while they 

 flutter their wings, and acquire 

 strength to fly. 



The cuckoo, which visits us at 

 the end of April, and whose note 

 is the familiar " coo-coo " depo- 

 sits its eggs in the nests of small 

 birds, 10 ; the eggs are very small, 

 averaging from ten to eleven - 



twelfths of an inch in length, 

 from eight to nine-twelfths in 

 breadth ; they are white, greyish- 

 o 



white, or reddish-white, speckled 

 with ash-grey, or greyish-brown. 

 A single egg is deposited in one 

 nest with the eggs of the proper 

 occupant. When hatched, the 

 young cuckoo, being larger and 

 stronger than the legitimate pro- 

 geny, throws them out of the 

 nest, and they perish, while the 

 intruder is nursed and fed until 

 able to care for himself. 



The nest of the water ousel, 11, 



is neatly constructed and curiously 

 concealed. It is composed of 

 entwined mosses, and is of large 



