Japanese Homes And Their Surroundings, Edward S. Morse, page 227, paragraph 2

A household shrine to which the children pay voluntary and natural devotion are the birds' nests build within the house. It is a common thing, not only in the country but in large cities like Tokio, for a species of swallow, hardly to be distinguished from the European species, to build its nest in the house, – not in an out of the way place, but in the room where the family may be most actively engaged, or in the shop fronting the street, with all its busy traffic going on. The very common occurrence of these birds' nests in houses is another of the many evidences of the gentle ways of this people, and of the kindness shown by them to animals.

Tuttle, 1972, Rutland, 0-8048-0998-4
Originally published in 1886