is stated to be the distant land of the A moor. The individuals frequenting the latter country probably spend
the winter in Southern China; while those found further west, in Russia for instance, resort to Asia Minor
and Arabia; and those of Central Europe pass the Mediterranean, by way of Malta and the neighbouring islands,
to Algeria. North America has a Swallow nearly allied to our own. This bird, like ours, is merely a summer
visitant, resorting to the United States a t that season, and retiring to Mexico and Central America at the
opposite. Crossing the equator to South Africa on the one hand, and Australia on the other, we find migratory
Swallows in both those countries, performing precisely the same offices, having similar natures, and whose
movements, like those of the northern species, are regulated by the sun, but o f course performed, owing to
their geographical position, at the opposite season of the year.
In the antipodes, as with us, the Swallow is the harbinger o f spring, and the cheerful companion o f those
who have adopted that p art of the world as a home; for, like the English bird, it builds a similar nest in
chimneys, barns, and outhouses, and lays eggs alike in character and markings: yet no naturalist will for
a moment consider the Hirundo neoxena to be identical with the II. rustica.
Soon after its arrival in England, the Swallow commences the task of reproduction ; the places chosen
for the nest are exceedingly varied : the inner side o f a smoking chimney, the shaft o f a mine, the rafters
beneath a bridge, barn, or boat-house are commonly selected; and many others might have been mentioned,
were it necessary so to do. The nest is most ingeniously built of wet mud, with layers of straw-like grasses
to secure the mass together, precisely as the hair prevents the plasterer’s work from felling to pieces ; within
this half cup of a nest, which is placed against the wall or the rafter, is a lining o f fine grasses and feathers.
The following description o f the nest of this species is by my son Franklin.
“ When fishing a t Denham, on the 25th of May, 1861, I observed several fine examples of the nests
and eggs of this bird under the bridge. The exterior of these nests was, as usual, composed of
mud mixed up with short pieces o f hay o r dried grass, with a few downy feathers o f the Swan lining
the interior. Some o f the nests had evidently been constructed the previous year, and increased by
the addition o f an inch or two o f fresh mud. They contained eggs in various degrees o f forwardness, from
those newly laid to those with the fully developed young in them. The eggs differed considerably in shape
and marking, one set, before they were blown, being o f a delicate pink, covered all over with minute spots
of lio-ht reddish brown ; the others, on the contrary, were broader and shorter in form, and were o f the
same delicate ground-colour, but with a smaller number o f spots, and those of a brown tint, running into large
blotches a t the broader end.”
The young Swallows remain blind for several days ; still they grow fast, and rapidly fill the nest, their wide
bills and bright-yellow fleshy gapes showing very conspicuously ; and about the middle o f Ju n e they leave the
nest, and perch on some neighbouring bare branch on the sunny side of a tree : here they are fed by their
parents, who bring them insects every minute, from morn till night. There these nestlings preen their
feathers, exercise their wings by taking short flights round the branches of the tree, or sally forth to meet
their parents and receive the food in the air, as portrayed on the accompanying Plate. The young, after
this time, begin to hawk flies for themselves; and the summer being still young, the old birds often
reconstruct the nest and rear a second brood. 1 find, by my note-book, that some Swallows were sitting on
their e«gs under the little romantic bridge a t Formosa, near Cookham, in B erkshire, as late as the 8th o f August.
These late broods, however, I imagine, are frequently overtaken by our chilly autumns, and suffer severely
from cold ; they are, however, only the remnant of our summer Swallows. These are the birds that linger
to a later period in the autumn, some even to October and November: perchance they have not sufficient
strength to perform the journey across the seas; they therefore still remain. It is these birds which seek
shelter in caves, crevices o f rocks, and similar places; here the increased cold of night benumbs their
muscles, paralyzes their systems, and renders them torpid : still their hearts beat, though but slowly;
ultimately they get weaker and weaker, and, as a natural consequence, die. Under such circumstances
their bodies are occasionally found ; and, and hence, perhaps, has arisen the fable of the supposed hybernation
of this bird.
The sexes are precisely alike in colour; but they differ in size, the female being somewhat smaller, and
having the outer tail-feathers shorter, than her mate.
Forehead and throat deep orange-brown; sides of the neck, back, wings, and band across the breast
deep bluish black ; abdomen and vent reddish white, tinged with brown; tail-feathers black, all but the two
middle ones, with a large white spot on the inner web; bill and irides b lack ; legs and feet purplish brown.
The young gradually assume the colouring o f the adult, from the time they leave the nest until they are
twelve months old.
The figures represent an adult and a young bird, of the natural size.