THE SWALLOW.
This deservedly popular harbinger of spring arrives in England about the end of March and beginning of April, and departs again in September, although specimen’s have been seen during every month of the year, and one hardy individual actually managed to live right through a mild winter in Yorkshire not long ago. There is little need for me to describe the appearance of this familiar bird in detail, but it may be well to say that its forehead, chin, and throat are chestnut brown, upper parts generally and a broad bar across the chest steely blue. Under parts dull, buffy white. The adult Swallow may always be distinguished, on the wing or at rest, from either the Swift or the Martin, by its much more deeply forked tail.
YOUNG SWALLOWS ON TELEGRAPH WIRES.
Its nest is generally built in a chimney or on a rafter in a barn, stable, or shed, although I have seen it plastered against a smooth whitewashed wall, on a dangling tendril of ivy that had grown through the roof of a shed, under a stone bridge, inside an old limekiln, on a ledge under the eaves of a shed, on a picture-frame, and inside an old tennis shoe left on a ledge in a boat-house. It is made of pellets of mud generally intermixed with straws and lined with dead grass and feathers. The structure differs in shape according to the site selected for it. Frequently it is formed like half or two-thirds of a saucer when plastered against a wall or rafter, but when on a flat surface the outside consists of a circular wall of mud.
NEWLY-FLEDGED SWALLOW.
The eggs, numbering from four to six, are white, spotted and blotched with dark, reddish-brown, and underlying specks of grey.
This bird’s song is one of the most joyous and spontaneous in all the realms of Nature, and the poet might well say:
It is uttered both whilst the melodist is flashing at lightning speed through the air and at rest on some house-top or tree, and is an exceedingly sweet and exhilarating warble frequently repeated.
During dull weather, when swallows fly low, they utter a note like wet wet, and their alarm cry has been fittingly written down as feetafeet-feetafetit. Inside buildings they also use another, which is a clear, ringing pink pink.