124 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
and particularly from owls, whicli frequently fall down cliimneys, perhaps 
in attempting to get at these nestlings. 
The swallow lays from four to six white eggs, dotted with red specks ; 
and brings out her first brood about the last week in June, or the first 
week in July. The progressive method by which the young are intro- 
duced into life is very amusing : first, they emerge from the shaft with 
difficulty enough, and often fall down into the rooms below : for a day 
or so they are fed on the chimney-top, and then are conducted to the 
dead leafless bough of some tree, where, sitting in a row, they are 
attended with great assiduity, and may then be called perchers. In a 
day or two more they become flyers, but are still unable to take their 
own food ; therefore they play about near the place where the dams are 
hawking for flies ; and, when a mouthful is collected, at a certain signal 
given, the dam and the nestling advance, rising towards each other, and 
meeting at an angle ; the young one all the while uttering such a little 
quick note of gratitude and complacency, that a person must have paid 
very little regard to the wonders of Nature that has not often remarked 
this feat. 
The dam betakes herself immediately to the business of a second 
brood as soon as she is disengaged from her first ; which at once associ- 
ates with the first broods of house-martins ; and with them congregates, 
clustering on sunny roofs, towers, and trees. This hirundo brings out 
her second brood towards the middle and end of August. 
All the summer long is the swallow a most instructive pattern of 
unwearied industry and aflection ; for, from morning to night, while 
there is a family to be supported, she spends the whole day in skimming 
close to the ground, and exerting the most sudden turns and quick 
evolutions. Avenues, and long walks under hedges, and pasture-fields, 
and mown meadows where cattle graze, are her delight, especially if 
there are trees interspersed ; because in such spots insects most abound. 
When a fly is taken a smart snap from her bill is heard, resembling the 
noise at the shutting of a watch-case ; but the motion of the mandibles 
are too quick for the eye. 
The swallow, probably the male bird, is the excuhitor to house-martins, 
and other little birds, announcing the approach of birds of prey. For 
as soon as a hawk appears, with a shrill alarming note he calls all the 
swallows and martins about him ; who pursue in a body, and buflet and 
strike their enemy till they have driven him from the village, darting 
down from above on his back, and rising in a perpendicular line in 
perfect security. This bird also will sound the alarm, and strike at cats 
when they climb on the roofs of houses, or otherwise approach the nests. 
Each species of hirundo drinks as it flies along, sipping the surface of 
the water ; but the swallow alone, in general, washes on the wing, 
by dropping into a pool for many times together : in very hot weather 
house-martins and bank-martins dip and wash a little. 
The swallow is a delicate songster, and in soft sunny weather sings 
both perching and flying ; on trees in a kind of concert, and on chimney 
tops : is also a bold flyer, ranging to distant downs and commons even 
in windy weather, which the other species seem much to dislike ; nay, 
even frequenting exposed sea-port towns, and making little excursions 
