PO LITE' NESS, good manners.
FI DEL' I TY, faithfulness.
IN CU BA' TION, act of hatching eggs.
REC RE A' TION, pastime; amusement.
DE MURE' LY, gravely; with affected modesty.
AP PRE CI A' TION, estimate.
LITHE, nimble; flexible.
EX' IT, departure; going out.
ARCH' I TECTS, (ch, like k,) builders.
SA LI' VA, spittle.
SE CRETE', to deposit; produce.
CON'' GRE GATE, collect together.
FLEDG' ED, furnished with feathers.
DO MAIN', realm; kingdom.
AC COM MO DA' TIONS, conveniences.
MI' GRATE, remove; travel.
SPHERE, (ph like f,) circuit of action.
CHIMNEY-SWALLOWS.
HENRY WARD BEECHER.
1. Every one knows, who lives in the country, what a chimney-swallow is. They are among the birds that seem to love the neighborhood of man. Many birds there are, that nestle confidingly in the protection of their superiors, and are seldom found nesting or breeding far from human habitations.
2. The wren builds close to your door. Sparrows and robins, if well treated, will make their nests right under your window, in some favorite tree, and will teach you, if you choose to go into the business, how to build birds' nests.
3. A great deal of politeness and fidelity may be learned. The female bird is waited upon, fed, cheered with singing, during her incubation, in a manner that might give lessons to the household. Nay, when she needs exercise and recreation, her husband very demurely takes her place, and keeps the eggs warm in the most gentlemanly way.
4. Barn-swallows have a very sensible appreciation of the pleasures of an ample barn. A barn might not be found quite the thing to live in, (although we have seen many a place where we would take the barn sooner than the house,) but it is one of the most charming places in a summer-day to lounge, read, or nap in.
5. And, as you lie on your back upon the sweet-scented hay-mow, or upon clean straw thrown down on the great floor, reading books of natural history, it is very pleasant to see the flitting swallows glance in and out, or course about under the roof, with motion so lithe and rapid as to seem more like the glancing of shadows than the winging of birds. Their mud-nests are clean, if they are made of dirt; and you would never dream, from their feathers, what sort of a house they lived in.
6. But, it was of chimney-swallows that we began to write; and they are just now roaring in the little, stubbed chimney behind us, to remind us of our duty. Every evening we hear them; for a nest of young ones brings the parents in with food, early and late, and every entrance or exit is like a distant roll of thunder, or like those old-fashioned rumblings of high winds in the chimney, which made us children think that all out-of-doors was coming down the chimney in stormy nights.
7. These little architects build their simple nests upon the sides of the chimney with sticks, which they are said to break off from dead branches of trees, though they might more easily pick them up already prepared. But they, doubtless, have their own reasons for cutting their own timber. Then these are glued to the wall by a saliva which they secrete, so that they carry their mortar in their mouths, and use their bills for trowels.