. Birds and their nests and eggs : found in and near great towns . is fledgling hadtaken its first flight and colhded with the tele-graph wires, which seem to be multiphed eachweek! Anyhow, some mishap overtook it. Ipicked it up insensible, and it breathed forseveral hours afterwards, but finally suc-cumbed—the cause of death was concussionof the brain, I think. A similar bird to the house-martin and theswallow is the swift. It has a considerablybroader expanse of wing than either of theother birds, and is totally black, or ratherbrownish-black, except the chin which isgreyish-white. The swall
. Birds and their nests and eggs : found in and near great towns . is fledgling hadtaken its first flight and colhded with the tele-graph wires, which seem to be multiphed eachweek! Anyhow, some mishap overtook it. Ipicked it up insensible, and it breathed forseveral hours afterwards, but finally suc-cumbed—the cause of death was concussionof the brain, I think. A similar bird to the house-martin and theswallow is the swift. It has a considerablybroader expanse of wing than either of theother birds, and is totally black, or ratherbrownish-black, except the chin which isgreyish-white. The swallow is buff-wliite on the chestand the under part of the body (not a purewhite Hke that of the martin), whilst theforehead, chin and throat are chestnut, andthe back and tail an exquisite shiny deep blue-black. The swallow is larger than the house- EARLY JUNE—OUR LAST EXCURSION 145 martin. The house-martins nest is the shapeand size of the quarter of a very large cocoa-nut. It has an open rim at the top for en-trance ; it is left unfinished here, being closed. Plate XLII : Swift (/, size).elsewhere right up to the gutter or eaveunder which it is built. I once had anexcellent opportunity of watching one ofthese birds building ; my bedroom at thetop of the housCj had a low window — n. L 146 AMONGST THE WOODLAND BIRDS— the gutter ran only a foot above the toppanes. Here, just to one side of the window,the birds constructed their home. The inter-vening glass, which reflected images, deceivedthe birds, and my presence, as I stood lookingat them with my nose almost flattened againstthe window, was quite undetected. Thenest was not more than three feet from myeyes. The busy pair flew continually downon to the road, returning each time with apellet of wet mud. It is alleged that thesepellets are made adhesive by the birdssaHva. Bit after bit was stuck on carefully;the nest gradually assumed a half-cup shape,and was finally completed right up to thegutter, except the narro
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