rll^TORY OF THE SWALLOW. 163 
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 com])lacency, that a person must have paid very little re- 
gard to the wonders of Nature that has not often remarked this 
feat. 
The dam betakes herself immediately to the busine&s of a 
second brood as soon as she is disengaged from her first ; which 
at once associates 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 affection ; 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 sud- 
den 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 excubitor 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 pur- 
sue in a body, and buffet 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 v/eather house-martins and bank-martins dip and wash 
little. 
The swallow is a delicate songster, and in soft sunny weather 
sings both perching and flying ; on trees in a kind of concert, 
