590 
BIRD-LIFE. 
cannot help loving them. The old birds take the utmost 
care of their offspring, and are very particular as to clean¬ 
liness ; they will catch the excreta, ejected from the 
nest, before it reaches the ground, and carry it out into 
the open air, so that even underneath the nest it is com¬ 
paratively clean. After about a fortnight the young are 
full grown, and capable of following their parents out of 
doors; here they practise flying, and are instructed by 
the old birds in capturing their food. At first they tire 
after every short flight, and sit for minutes close together, 
all in a row, upon some prominent branch, where they 
rest themselves; in a very short time, however, they 
learn to fly as well as the old birds. For several days 
after they first quit the nest both old and young return 
to it every evening, but a fortnight after their appearance 
in public they are able to take care of themselves, and no 
longer come back to the old home. After having got rid 
of the first brood, the old birds make preparations for the 
second family, but they never lay as many eggs as on the 
first occasion. 
Swallows are, as the whole world have rightly 
decided, most useful creatures, and for this reason it 
is iniquitous that they should be caught in some places 
for food. I was disgusted, when in Spain, to see boys 
catching these pretty creatures with a hook and feather, 
while at the same time I quite forgot that such blood¬ 
thirsty young rascals were to be met with in Germany 
itself, namely, in the neighbourhood of Halle and Vienna, 
where numbers of our little feathered friends are thus 
murdered. The tiny morsel which a Swallow furnishes 
is not sufficient recompense for the trouble of catching it ; 
it, therefore, appears ail the more inexcusable to make 
these little pets offerings to gluttony. 
