THE EAVES-SWALLOW: HOW SHE CHANGED HER 

 STYLE OF BUILDING. 



When the eaves-swallow first came about the homes of men, 

 she built a diti'erent nest from that she builds to-day. Her 

 home had been the sides of cliffs, not so smooth and straight 

 as the sides of a barn, and not protected b}^ any overhanging 



Fig. 45. Nests of Eaves-Swallow. 



eaves. The roughness of the rock was an advantage to the 

 bird, as it helped to support the nest, but the lack of cover was 

 a disadvantage so great as to require some special provision ; 

 for if the rain beat into the swallow's nest, it would drown the 

 little ones, or soak the nest until it fell from the cliff. The 

 mud nest of the swallow is water-tight, and rain cannot drip 

 through, as it might through a nest of sticks. So, in her wild 

 state, the eaves-swallow built a covered nest of a form commonly 

 known as the ^'bottle-nosed nest." It -was like a rudely mod- 

 elled, round-bodied, short-necked flask of mud, stuck against 

 the cliff by the bottom end, so that the bird could enter by the 

 mouth of the flask. The neck of the bottle was a little passage- 



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