he roof. It was with difficulty, and
with a heavy flight, that she left this spot to take up her abode in her
new house; and, doubtless, while the agony of the sparrows was being
filled up, she laid her eggs, for she did not stir out for two days; the
male, during that time, taking upon himself to search for insects and
hunt for flies. He brought them alive in his beak, and gave them to his
companion. Entirely devoted to the duties of incubation and maternity,
she was only seen now and then to put out her head to breathe the pure
air. Fifteen days after, the male flew away at day-break. He appeared
more gay and joyful than usual; during the whole day he ceased not to
bring to the nest a countless number of insects, and Cuvier, by standing
on tiptoe at his window, could distinctly see six little yellow and
hungry beaks, crying out, and swallowing with avidity all the food
brought by their father. The female did not leave her family till the
morrow; confinement and fatigue had made her very thin. Her plumage had
lost its lustre; but in seeing her contemplate her little ones, you
might conceive the maternal joy which filled her, and by what ineffable
compensations she felt herself indemnified for all her privations and
sufferings. After a short time the little creatures had advanced in
figure; their large yellow bills were transformed into little black and
charming ones; their naked bodies, covered here and there with ugly
tufts, were now clothed with elegant feathers, on which the light played
in brilliant flashes. They began to fly about the nest, and even to
accompany their mother when she hunted for flies in the neighborhood.

Cuvier could not refrain from feelings of admiration, and was somewhat
affected when he saw the mother, with indefatigable patience and grace,
show her children how they should set about catching flies, which darted
about in the air--to suck in an incautious one, or carry away a spider
which had imprudently made his net between the branches of two trees.
Often she would hold out to them at a distance in her beak a booty which
excited their appetite; then she would go away by degrees, and gradually
draw them unconsciously off to a shorter or a longer distance from the
nest. The swallow taught her children to fly high when the air was calm,
for then the insects kept in a more elevated part of the air; or to skim
along the ground at the approach of a storm, as then the same insects
would direct their