SWALLOW NESTS. 
257 
duck, into an earthen pot closely covered, and suffered to boil 
over a slow fire for twenty-four hours. 
Swallows are generally hailed as welcome guests, and 
allowed to fix their plastered dwellings without molestation 
under the eaves or corners of window-sills ; hut when very 
numerous they are apt to occasion a good deal of dirt, and 
when once established it is by no means easy to drive them 
away. This, however, may be effected by rubbing the corners 
of the windows with soft soap early in the spring. This was 
practised with success in a house, the windows of which used 
to be quite darkened by the dirt &c. occasioned by a colony 
of nests. The Swallows on their arrival began to build as 
usual: but as fast as they attempted to attach their materials 
to the stone, they slipped off. For some days they renewed 
their attempts, but then gave the matter up ; and what was 
very remarkable, although the soaping was never renewed, 
not a single Swallow ever afterwards attempted to build on 
the windows, not even on those which had not been soaped, 
though several built in the adjacent out-houses and imme- 
diate neighbourhood. 
But we fear we are suggesting a needless remedy for an 
inconvenience not likely to occur ; for within the last few 
years, particularly since 1809, these pretty social Summer 
visitors, like our Starlings, have been decreasing in numbers 
in the most unaccountable manner, not only in England, but 
in almost every part of the Continent. 
The same church- steeple which has enabled us year after 
year to watch the Starlings,^ was formerly a source of equal 
interest respecting Swallows; nests were snugly concealed in 
sheltered nooks, the belfry itself being a favourite resort, not- 
withstanding the frequent peals which might have shaken 
the nerves of less determined birds ; and a few days before 
their final departure, it was pleasant to watch them marshalling 
their newly-fledged broods along the projecting dripstones 
and mouldings on the eastern side of the old grey tower, 
enjoying the morning sun. As the numbers collected seemed 
* See page 212. 
s 
