SWALLOW 
97 
of the summer. The nest is a semicircular 
saucer or bowl of mud-pellets, kneaded together 
with short fragments of straw, lined with straws, 
some horse-hair and dry grass, and with an inner 
lining of feathers. It is generally affixed to a 
beam or rafter in a cowshed or other outbuilding; 
many curious sites have been recorded, but, speak- 
ing generally, the Swallow builds inside buildings^ 
and the Martin outside them, the latter needing 
less protection from the enclosed shape of its nest. 
Four to six eggs are laid, slender in shape and 
creamy-white in ground-colour, fairly thickly 
spotted and speckled with shades of reddish- 
brown, which may vary from a light, clear tint to 
a dusky umber, and often with some fainter spots 
of grey. The Swallow has a low and pleasant 
twittering song, sounding deep in the throat, and a 
louder, screaming note which it utters when alarmed 
or when sweeping low over the fields before a 
storm. It perches more often on roofs and tele- 
graph-wires than on a tree, as its legs and feet are 
feeble, and it needs a clear space when it sweeps off 
again into flight ; if it alights on a tree at all it 
chooses some topmost or outmost twig, or a dead, 
jutting limb. 
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