3 OCTOBER 1931, Page 12

ARTISTIC SWALLOWS.

An African correspondent (one of many who write to the Spectator on natural history subjects) sends me a picture and' an account of a quaint artistic (or self-protective) device prac- tised by a pair of swallows. One of the several nests built at the angle of a verandah cuts across a double fillet of white paint. The swallows; not liking to break the pattern, have continued both lines across their nest by the use of bands of a white clay, and so skilfully was the work done that it gives the suggestion of a nest built behind the two white bands. The nest is on the stoep of a missionary's. house in Namaqualand, who, when asked for corroborative evidence, says that he has seen the swallows at work at this act of protective mimicry for several years in succession. A very white clay is common in the neighbourhood.