Now then, we have had five groups. Let us count them. Birds of Prey,
Perching birds, Scratching birds, Wading birds, Swimming birds, and I think
I must add one more; for the Passerine, or Sparrow group includes most
of the small birds, such as blackbirds and thrushes, nightingales and
swallows, larks and magpies, linnets and humming-birds, and I cannot tell
how many more "feathered fowl."
[Illustration: FISHING.]
Our story of a tame swallow must follow. There are four kinds of
swallows--the Swift, the Chimney-swallow, the House-martin, and the
Sand-martin; they all look much alike when on the wing, but there are
differences, especially in the sort of nest which they build. The
house-martin makes its nest of mud, lined with grass or feathers, against
the side of a house, and there lays its beautiful white eggs.
A pair of martins built their cosy nest one summer beneath the eaves of
a house in the country, just under the window of one of the bedrooms.
Swallows rear two broods every season, and one brood was reared
successfully in this nest, but the second was not so fortunate. Late in
September--and you know the swallows are off to Africa in October--a
servant found a poor little shivering bird on the steps. It was plain that
it had tried to fly from the nest, with its brothers and sisters, but had
not been strong enough. The poor birdie seemed almost dead when it was
picked up, but in the family there was a lady who loved "all things both
great and small," and she fed the tiny martin, and made a bed for it in a
work basket lined with wool.
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