Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/52

Rh of the Swallow is open at the top, and like half a deep dish: this nest is lined with fine grasses and feathers, which are aften collected as they float in the air.

"Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird shews all day long, in ascending and descending with security through so narrow a pass. . . . The progressive method by which the young are introduced into life is very amusing: first, they emerge from the shaft with difficulty enough, and often fall down into the rooms below: for a day or so they are fed on the chimney-top, and then are conducted to the dead leafless bough of some tree, where, sitting in a row, they are attended with great assiduity, and may then be called perchers. In a day or two more they become fliers, but are still unable to take their own food; therefore they play about near the place where the dams are hawking for flies; and when a mouthful is collected, at a certain signal given, the dam and the nestling advance, rising towards each other, and meeting at an angle; the young one all the while uttering such a little quick note of gratitude and complacency that a person must have paid very little regard to the wonders of nature, that has not often remarked this feat."

The Todies constitute a small Family almost confined to the tropics, but found in both hemispheres. They are marked by having the beak