602 
SWALLOW TRIBE. 
January and February the common Chimney Swallow 
of Europe has been observed to moult, by Mr. Pearson 
of London, and Mr. Natterer of Vienna; with the latter 
they survived in cages, to which they are easily recon- 
ciled, for 8 or 9 years, and showed no propensity to tor- 
pidity. The fleetness with which they move, and the pe- 
culiarity of their insect fare, are circumstances which 
would impel a prompt transition to more favorable cli- 
mates. Accidental fits of torpidity, like those which oc- 
casionally and transiently take place with the Humming- 
Bird, have undoubtedly happened to Swallows, without 
proving any thing against the general migrating instinct 
of the species. 
Early in May they begin to build, against a beam 
or rafter, usually in the barn. The external and round- 
ing shell is made of pellets of mud, tempered with fine 
hay, and rendered more adhesive by the glutinous sa- 
liva of the bird ; within is laid a bed of fine hay, and 
the lining is made of loosely arranged feathers. The 
eggs are 5, white, spotted over with reddish-brown. 
They have usually two broods in the season, and the last 
leave the nest about the first week in August. Twenty 
or thirty nests may sometimes be seen in the same barn, 
and two or three in a cluster, where each pursues his 
busy avocation in the most perfect harmony. When the 
young are fledged, the parents, by their actions and twit- 
terings, entice them out of the nest, to exercise their 
wings within the barn, where they sit in rows amid the 
timbers of the roof, or huddle closely together in cool or 
rainy weather for mutual warmth. At length they ven- 
ture out with their parents, and, incapable of constant ex- 
ercise, may now be seen on trees, bushes, or fence-rails, 
near some pond or creek, convenient to their food ; and 
their diet is disgorged from the stomachs or crops of their 
