OUR HOME BIRDS. 
65 
with its constant tsip tsip tsip , tsee tsee , in the most 
hurried manner, which produces a very curious kind 
of noise in any chimney where it happens to reside. 
This swallow is only four and a half inches long, a 
wee little bird ; and the more wet and gloomy the 
weather, the more active it is. It seems never to get 
wearied during its long day. It is said to be the 
earliest up in the morning and the latest out at night 
of all the swallows. 
“ The nest is built in vacant chimneys, and formed 
of small twigs stuck together with a glutinous sub- 
stance which is secreted from a couple of little glands 
or bags found in its mouth. It is fastened to the side 
of the chimney, and has no soft lining. The old 
swallows, in passing up and down, make a noise 
something like distant thunder. 
“ Sometimes accidents happen to these chimney 
residences ; after long-continued rains the glue that 
fastens them becomes soft, and down tumble cradles, 
babies, and all. If the babies are not too little, how- 
ever, and the sides of the chimney not too smooth, 
they cling fast like squirrels, and their parents feed 
them until they are able to fly. It is quite funny 
to see them, when they get fairly out of the nest, sit- 
ting quietly on the top of a chimney and receiving 
in regular order the tempting morsels brought them 
by the parent-birds. There are generally four white 
6 * E 
