Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/51

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38
PASSERES.—HIRUNDINIDÆ. .

country about the 13th of April, and withdraws about the beginning of October, though stragglers often appear before, and linger after these periods. It builds with us, for the most part,

Chimney Swallow
Chimney Swallow

CHIMNEY SWALLOW.

in chimneys, but occasionally also it attaches its clay-built structure to the rafters of barns and outhouses, or within the shaft of an old well, or of an unworked coal-pit. "Five or six feet down the chimney does this little bird begin to form her nest, about the middle of May, which consists, like that of the House Martin, of a crust or shell composed of dirt or mud mixed with short pieces of straw to render it tough and permanent; with this difference, that whereas the shell of the Martin is nearly hemispheric, that