The swallow, and other birds of passage--that is, birds who fly from one
country to another, as the weather becomes unsuited to their
natures--now begin to return to us. The swallow is a general favourite.
He comes to us when nature is putting on her most smiling aspect, and he
stays with us through the months of sunshine and gladness. “The
swallow,” says Sir H. Davy, “is one of my favourite birds, and a rival
of the nightingale; for he glads my sense of seeing, as much as the
other does my sense of hearing. He is the joyous prophet of the year,
the harbinger of the best season, he lives a life of enjoyment amongst
the loveliest forms of nature; winter is unknown to him, and he leaves
the green meadows of England in autumn, for the myrtle and orange groves
of Italy, and for the palms of Africa.”
Mr. White, a clergyman of Hampshire, who delighted to observe all the
works of the creation around him, has thus accurately described the
window swallow’s or martin’s mode of building:--
“About the middle of May, if the weather be fine, the martin begins to
think in earnest of providing a mansion for its family. The crust or
shell of this nest seems to be formed of such dirt or loam as comes most
readily to hand, and is tempered and wrought together with little bits
of broken straws to render it tough and tenacious. As this bird often
builds against a perpendicular wall without any projecting ledge under,
it requires its utmost efforts to get the first foundation firmly fixed,
so that it may safely carry the superstructure. On this occasion, the
bird not only clings with its claws, but partly supports itself by
strongly inclining its tail against the wall, making that a fulcrum; and
thus steadied, it works and plasters the materials into the face of the
brick or stone. But then, that this work may not, while it is soft and
green, pull itself down by its own weight, the provident architect has
prudence and forbearance enough not to advance her work too fast; but by
building only in the morning, and by dedicating the rest of the day to
food and amusement, gives it sufficient time to dry and harden. About
half an inch seems to be a sufficient layer for a day. Thus careful
workmen, when they build mud-walls (informed at first perhaps by this
little bird), raise but a moderate layer at a time and then desist, lest
the work should become top-heavy, and so be ruined by its own weight. By
this method, in about ten or twelve days, is formed a hemispheric nest
with a small aperture towards the top, strong, compact, and warm, and
perfectly fitted for all the purposes for which it was intended.
“The shell or crust of the nest is a sort of rustic-work, full of knobs
and protuberances on the outside: nor is the inside of those that I have
examined smoothed with any exactness at all; but is rendered soft and
warm, and fit for incubation, by a lining of small straws, grasses and
feathers, and sometimes by a bedding of moss interwoven with wool. They
are often capricious in fixing on a nesting-place, beginning many
edifices and leaving them unfinished; but when once a nest is completed
in a sheltered place, after so much labour is bestowed in erecting a
mansion, as nature seldom works in vain, the same nest serves for
several seasons. Those which breed in a ready finished house, get the
start in hatching of those that build new by ten days or a fortnight.
These industrious artificers are at their labours in the long days
before four in the morning; when they fix their materials, they plaster
them on with their chins, moving their heads with a quick, rotatory
motion.”
[Illustration: A swallow perched outside its nest.]
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