Page:010 Once a week Volume X Dec 1863 to Jun 64.pdf/57

 Jax.

'->,

ONCE A WEEK.

1864.]

the female in her flight to and fro, but never ventured beyond the window-frame. He never

I

i

uttered any note but when the female was out of sight, and then only a small chirp. This diminutive but hardy bird may bo

That observant naturalist, called migratory. Mr. Prideaux Selby, says, that after a very severe gale, with a thick fog from the northGolden-crested Wren eiist, thousands of the were seen to arrive upon the seashore and sandbanks of the Northumbrian coast, many

them

so fatigued by the length of their flight as to be unable to rise again from the ground ; and great numbers were, in conse-

of

This flight must quence, caught or destroyed. have been immense in quantity, as its extent was traced through the whole length of the coasts of Northumberland and Durham. The nest of the Window-swallow which, from its structure, may be called the work of is well known. a mason-bird The nest is formed of small pellets of clay, worked up with the saliva of the birds, and lined with But it i3 not of the nests that I am feathers. about to write, but of the singular situations in which the swallow-tribe sometimes build them. I am indebted to the late Karl of Albemarle for the following very interesting fact, which occurred on his lordship's at Quiddenham, in Norfolk. A limekiln had been erected on that property, and under the

—

—

i

arch of the kiln a pair of swallows built their nest. A fierce fire was kept up at the end of this arch to burn the bricks, but the heat was so great that the nest dropped to pieces. A second was built by the persevering birds,

and then a third



49

earth or clay which would serve, and the newas to use it in that particular

cessity there

Those persons who are inclined to argue that mere instinct would have taught swallows to perform what has been related, do not do justice to the sense and intelligence of place.

1

these interesting birds. If reason did not influence their operations, it must have been

something nearly

j

,

allied to

it.

known

that swallows will make their nests in old wells and coal-shafts, and I once observed a pair which built one in a It is well

watercourse, which conducted the water in great force from a paper-mill near Dover to the river below. The nest was very little above I also saw a swallows' the flow of the water. nest built on the knocker of a door at Pipe Hayes Hall, in Warwickshire. The odd places in which swallows occasionally build their nests might be enumerated to a great extent.

Edw ard t

ROUND THE

IRISH COAST.

PAKE

While

Jesse.

I.

tourists are flocking daily to

some

recognised shrine of fashion or locality where beautiful scenery and good accommodation are the attractions, they seldom or <vr think it

wmth

their while to visit out-of-the-way spots, dally when they are difficult of access, or These are present only an intrinsic interest. left to the antiquary, the artist who prefers originality to hackneyed subjects, the student

of folklore, the geologist, or those peculiar individuals who enjoy a ramble in sequestered and unsophisticated districts where the inha-

but they all met the same they constructed a nest which stood the heat, and in it they hatched their eggs, and brought up a brood of young swallows this they did during the three fol-

bitants are unspoilt by the so-called "improvements " that fashionable civilisation brings in

lowing

years, each successive nest standLord Albemarle told me ing the heat. that he was much interested in the pro-

portion — amongst those storm-vexed

ceedings of these birds, and frequently went to watch their nest, giving strict orders to his workmen that they should not be molested.

though not that of the present day

fate.

At



last



Now, it is not easy to form an opinion how these birds discovered and made use of a particular clay which would stand the great heat of a limekiln. There can be no doubt of the simL was the case, and it has always appeared t<^ne to be an extraordinary proof

fact that

of intelligence, as well as of perseverance, in On returning to accomplishing their object. the kiln the second and third years, they must

not only have kept in their recollection the fact that the earth they commonly used to build their nests would not stand the heat, but they must also have remembered the sort of

her train. I

my

last

come under the latter category, I spent autumn holiday in what are probably of the British home-regions islands that girdle

tldest

the

Irish

coast.

They

are full of interest, for their

very position has kept them as things of tho past, and it must be a strong inducement, or a real love for roughing it, that will ever make

them a resort had occasion to

for British tourists.

Having

travel along the western coast to examine it with considerable

of Ireland, and minuteness, I was tempted to extend my wanderings to most of these Atlantic barriers, many of which, especially the larger ones, are But the most interesting are those inhabited.

that are uninhabited, owing to the presence of early ecclesiastical remains, which, as a rule, Avere placed by their founders in the most inhospitable and savage retreats, as though they were determined to put every obstacle