OF 8 EL BORNE. 
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much more in favour of hiding than migration ; since it is 
much more probable that a bird should retire to its hyber- 
naculum just at hand, than return for a week or two only to 
warmer latitudes. 
The swallow, though called the chimney-swallow, by no 
means builds altogether in chimneys, but often within 
barns and outhouses against the rafters ; and so she did in 
VirgiFs time: 
"Ante .... 
r!-arrula qnam tip;nis nidos suspendat hirundo." 
In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called ladu swala, 
the barn-swallow. Besides, in the warmer parts of Europe 
there are no chimneys to houses except they are English - 
built : in these countries she constructs her nest in porches, 
and gateways, and galleries, and open halls. 
Here and there a bird may affect some odd, peculiar 
place ; as we have known a swallow build down the shaft 
of an old well, through which chalk had been formerly 
drawn up for the purpose of manure : but in general with 
us this Hirundo breeds in chimneys ; and loves to haunt 
those stacks where there is a constant fire, no doubt for the 
sake of warmth. Not that it can subsist in the immediate 
shaft where there is a fire; but prefers one adjoining to that 
of the kitchen, and disregards the perpetual smoke of that 
funnel, as I have often observed with some degree of 
wonder. 
Five or six or more feet down the chimney, does this little 
bird begin to form her nest about the middle of May, which 
consists, like that of the houae martin, of a crust or shell 
composed of dirt or mud, mixed with short pieces of straw, 
to render it tough and permanent ; with this difference, that 
whereas the shell of the martin is nearly hemispheric, that 
of the swallow is open at the top, and like half a deep dish : 
this nest is lined with fine grasses, and feathers which are 
often collected as they float in the air. 
is very doubtful whether the swallows which appear unseasonably for a 
few days do not perish when they are said to withdraw. " I do not 
see," he says, " how they are identified when they are supposed to re- 
appear in due time." — Ed. 
