_Ferdinand_. Poor little bird! how I should pity him, to be deprived of his house after having constructed it with so much labour. I should think, such strong nests would last more than one season, mamma? _Mrs. B._ And so they do, my dear. Martins will continue to breed for several years together in the same nest, when it happens to be well sheltered, and secure from the injuries of the weather. The hen lays from four to six white eggs; and, like the swallow, as soon as the young are able to shift for themselves, the old ones turn their thoughts to the business of rearing a second brood. About the beginning of October, they retire in vast flocks together. _Louisa_. How are house-martins distinguished from the others, pray, mamma?? _Mrs. B._ By having their legs covered with feathers quite down to their toes. They are no songsters, but twitter in their nests, in a pretty, inward, soft manner. _Louisa_. Now, pray mamma, give us some account of the swift. _Mrs. B._ Most willingly, my dear Louisa. This is the largest of the British _hirundines_, and makes its appearance much later in the season than the others I have mentioned; being seldom seen before the last week in April, or the first week in May. It is by no means so skilful an architect as the two species I have already noticed. Making no crust or shell to its nest, it forms it of dry grass and features, very rudely put together, and constructing it in some dark corner of a castle, tower, or steeple; this species cannot, therefore, be so narrowly watched as the others, which build more openly. They are almost constantly on the wing, never settling, either on the ground, on the roofs of houses, or in trees, as is the case with the other species. The female lays only two eggs, which are milk-white, long, and peaked at the small end. It is a very lively bird, rising early and retiring to rest late, and is observed, in the height of summer, to be on the wing sixteen hours a day. Like the martin, they are no songsters, having only one harsh, screaming note, which, however, I cannot consider disagreeable. It is never heard but in the most lovely summer weather, and, consequently, the sound occasions in my mind a pleasing association of ideas, which I like to indulge. If by any accident they settle upon the ground, they find great difficulty in rising, on account of the shortness of their legs and the length of their wings: neither can they walk conveniently, they only crawl along. _Louisa_. They seem, in many respects different in their habits from the other species you have mentioned, mamma: how may we distinguish them by their outward appearance?