SWALLOW NESTS. 
61 
have been decreasing in numbers, in the most un- 
accountable 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, notwithstanding 
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 gray tower, enjoying the 
morning sun. As the numbers collected seemed far 
to exceed those which were reared there, it appeared 
as if the united broods of the neighbourhood, had by 
common consent, fixed upon it as a favoured central 
rendezvous. All was exhilaration, — a perpetual twit- 
tering was kept up; a few of the old ones would, 
after flying in circles round the battlements, pass 
screaming by the reposing ranks of young ones, and 
then, as if by word of command, the whole body 
would sweep from their resting-places, and, in loud 
chorus, take a wider circuit, as if to try their powers ; 
and then, in an instant, crowd again together, and 
rest as before. But those days are gone by ; year 
after year the numbers have fallen off, and at present 
we are not aware of even a single nest. 
There may J>e, however, some solitary exceptions 
to their diminution; one, indeed, fell under our 
observation, on the 1 7th of June, 1833, when we 
* See page 2. 
