THE EAVES-SWALLOW. 207 



overhanging eaves. In one case I know of their buikling on 

 the east, and in another on the north side of a barn, but this 

 was because these were more sheltered. However, the north 

 side is often occupied by a few pairs tliat have arrived too 

 late to take up a house lot under the warmer eaves. Rather 

 than be separated from their friends, they will build on an 

 undesirable homestead. 



Near my home is a barn that has, for many years, been the 

 resort of a large colony of eaves-swallows. The owner had 

 wisely protected them, and they visited him every year in great 

 numbers. I imagine that several other colonies near there 

 are made up of swallows of this original community forced to 

 emigrate and seek a home elsewhere for lack of room here. In 

 1898 there were seventy nests in the colony, two years before 

 there were one hundred and eleven, and the year before there 

 were one hundred and sixty -five. The last two years the num- 

 bers decreased, and this year the whole colony has removed. 



In the winter of 1896, the English sparrows roosted all 

 winter in these old swallows' nests and in the spring built 

 in them, intending to raise their broods in nests they had 

 not made. But when the swallows came, there was war. 

 The sv/allows pulled down the nests, — eggs, young ones, and 

 all, — and fought the sparrows till they were glad to escape 

 with their lives. However, the north side of the building 

 was not needed by the swallows that year, only a few 

 pairs building there; and a pair of sparrows that re- 

 sisted the onslaughts of these few came off victorious. They 

 occupied an old swallow's nest, and a pair of swallows lived 

 next-door neighbor to them. The next year the sparrows again 

 wintered in the barn and tried to occupy the ground for their 

 nesting, but bag and baggage they were packed off, and the 

 swallows gloried in their complete possession. 



