THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 
121 
large wheel revolving under a powerful stream. It 
was yet dusky, so that I could hardly see the hour 
on my watch ; but I estimated the time which they 
took in getting out at more than thirty minutes. 
After their departure, no noise was heard within, 
and they dispersed in every direction with the quick- 
ness of thought.” * 
* The Swallows are undoubtedly sociable creatures, 
seeming disposed at least to be neighborly, and often, when 
unmolested, manifesting an inclination to live upon terms 
of intimacy with us which are sometimes inconveniently 
familiar. Scarcely a farm-house exists but whose chimneys 
are appropriated to the summer occupancy of one or more 
families of Swifts. 
Some years ago, at a nobleman’s house in Scotland, a 
pair of Swallows built their nest upon the top bar of a 
clothes-screen which was hung against the wall in the por- 
ter’s lodge ; the young were hatched and flew away. Upon 
the first appearance of the Swallows the following year, a 
male bird again entered the apartment and surveyed the 
premises. Having satisfied himself, he went off, but soon 
returned with a companion, which at first appeared very 
shy and timid, but in a short time acquired as much assur- 
ance as ihs mate. They both forthwith set about building 
a new nest on a small ledge which had been prepared for 
them as near as possible to the place where that on the 
clothes-screen had been built, and which had been de- 
stroyed ; as, while it remained, the screen was of course 
useless to the family. 
In this nest three broods were reared as before, notwith- 
standing the almost constant presence of the porter and his 
wife, who lived and slept in the room. In the Spring of the 
third year, the male again made his appearance with an- 
other mate, evidently much younger than her predecessor. 
11 
