A Swallow's Terrace?

Abstract

MR. A. G. VERNON HARCOURT has just shown me, in his boat-house at Cowley Grange, a specimen of swallow's architecture unlike anything I have seen or heard of. The nest, which is itself normal, is placed at the end of a small beam extending from the top of the door to the angle of the building. This beam is about two feet and a quarter in length, and four inches broad. The nest is at the end next the door; the whole of the rest of the surface of the beam is occupied with an adjunct to the nest, which looks as if it had been meant for the family to perch and roost on. It consists, like the nest, of a foundation of dried mud, carefully covered with dry grass; and it is obvious that much care and pains were spent on its construction. Its length (excluding the nest) is nearly two feet.