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as the swallows go swooping across the fields or over ponds. 

 How I longed to be able to reproduce, with the camera, 

 the beautiful scenes that I have witnessed many times at 

 Barn Swallow nests, but, unfortunately, they have always 

 been in locations where the light did not allow of instanta- 

 neous pictures and always where I have been unable to use 

 a mirror to reflect light. Their movements, as they thrust 

 food in turn down the waiting throats are so very rapid 

 that no exposure longer than one one hundredth of a 

 second would secure any result except a blur. 



Cliff Swallow 



While the Barn Swallows usually have their homes within 

 barns. Cliff Swallows almost as frequently fasten theirs to 

 the outsides of such structures, on which account they are 

 very generally known as "Eave Swallows." These Swal- 

 lows are more gregarious than Barn Swallows; even in the 

 East, where they build under the eaves of buildings, they 

 nest in colonies varying from two or three nests to some- 

 times as many as fifty on one building. In the West where 

 they have not so fully learned the ways of civilization, they 

 nest in colonies of thousands, attaching their homes to the 

 faces of cliffs. 



Their nests are constructed in the same manner as those 

 of Barn Swallows but are of a much different shape. The 

 typical Cliff Swallow nest is flask-shaped; it is attached to 

 the building or cliff by one side of the rounded bottom, 

 which is slightly flattened, and the entrance is through an 

 opening in the short neck that protrudes from the upper 

 side; again the nest may have no neck but simply a round 

 hole in the upper part of the mud dome. The outside has 

 a very granular appearance caused by the large pellets of 

 mud that are plastered on it. The inside is, of course, lined 

 with feathers or grasses. 



Many persons confuse this bird and the latter one, but 

 they are very different and easily recognized. This species 

 has no swallow or forked tail and has a light patch on the 



