222 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
black, or American bear, the profile is rather an arched 
line, and in the grizzly bear it is slightly convex between 
the eyes. The forehead of the Polar Bear is flat; the Euro- 
pean bear has it rounded. The Polar Bear has the head 
narrow and the muzzle large; the brown bear has the head 
large and the muzzle narrow. — Godman’s Nat. Hist. 
SWALLOWS. 
The house-swallow, or chimney-swallow, is, undoubt- 
edly, the first comer of all the British hirundines; and ap- 
pears in general on or about the 13th of April, as I have 
remarked from many years’ observation. Not but now 
and then a straggler is seen much earlier: and, in particu- 
lar, when I was a boy I observed a Swallow for a whole 
day together on a sunny warm Shrove Tuesday; which 
day could not fall out later than the middle of March, and 
often happened earlier in February. 
It is worth remarking, that these birds are seen first 
about lakes and mill-ponds; and it is also very particular, 
that if these early visitors happen to find frost and snow, 
as was the case of the two dreadful springs of I770and 1771, 
they immediately withdraw for a time; a circumstance 
this, much more in favour of hiding than migration; since 
it is much more probable that a bird should retire to its 
hybernaculum 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 out-houses against the rafters; and so she did in 
Virgil’s time — 
“ Ante 
Garrula quam tignis 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 nests in porches, 
and gate-ways, 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 imme- 
diate shaft where there is a fire, but prefers one adjoin- 
ing to that of a 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 house-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 differ- 
ence, that whereas the shell of the martin is nearly hemis- 
pheric, 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. 
Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird shows 
all day long in ascending and descending with security 
through so narrow a pass. When hovering over the mouth 
of the funnel, the vibrations of her wings acting on the 
confined air occasion a rumbling like thunder. It is not 
improbable that the dam submits to this inconvenient situa- 
tion so low in the shaft, in order to secure her broods from 
rapacious birds, and particularly from owls, which fre- 
quently fall down chimneys, 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 pro- 
gressive method by which the young are introduced 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 he called perchers. In a day or 
two more they become fliers, but are still unable to take 
their own food; therefore they play about near the place 
where the dams are hawking; and when a mouthful is col- 
lected, 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 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 support- 
