These congregations usually begin to take place about
the first week in August; and therefore we may conclude that by
that time the first flight is pretty well over. The young of this
species do not quit their abodes all together; but the more forward
birds get abroad some days before the rest. These approaching the
eaves of buildings, and playing about before them, make people
think that several old ones attend one nest. They are often
capricious in fixing on a nesting place, beginning many edifices,
and leaving them unfinished; but when once a nest is completed in
a sheltered place, it serves for several seasons. Those which breed
in a ready finished house get the start in hatching of those that
build new by ten days or a fortnight. These industrious artificers
are at their labours in the long days before four in the morning:
when they fix than materials they plaster them on with their chins,
moving their heads with a quick vibratory motion. They dip and
wash as they fly sometimes in very hot weather, but not so
frequency as swallows.
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