Late Broods
Two other late broods of which I have cognisance are both of swallows—one in Berkshire, the other, yet later, in a mill (famous for its record in the Domesday Book) in a Hertfordshire village. I doubt whether any bird develops quite so quickly as .the swallow. The birds very often have three broods during their short stay, and may have four. The young of one brood have to be fed on some neighbouring roost while the succeeding brood is being hatched ; and though still in statu pupillari they are astonishingly strong on the wing for such callow youngsters. The feeding goes on till twilight almost fades into darkness, and much of the food is pre-digested. What a marvel of design the bird is I Quick- ness and lightness are perhaps its master attributes. It is of the air, aerial. Even the bones are lightened with pockets of air. The plane and the stream-lines and the " oarage of the wings " are as well adapted for continuous passage through the air as the structure of tilt. fish for motion in the water ; and hence the air is the breath of its life—it is more at home there than the fish in the rivet.
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