THE BLUEBIRD 195 



acting as guard and flying above and in advance of 

 the female. She brings all the material and does 

 all the work of building, he looking on and encour- 

 aging her with gesture and song. He acts also as 

 inspector of her work, but I fear is a very partial 

 one. She enters the nest with her bit of dry grass 

 or straw, and, having adjusted it to her notion, with- 

 draws and waits near by while he goes in and looks 

 it over. On coming out he exclaims very plainly, 

 ^^ Excellent! excellent ! ^^ and away the two go 

 again for more material. 



The bluebirds, when they build about the farm 

 buildings, sometimes come in conflict with the swal- 

 lows. The past season I knew a pair to take forci- 

 ble possession of the domicile of a pair of the latter, 

 — the cliff species that now stick their nests under 

 the eaves of the barn. The bluebirds had been 

 broken up in a little bird-house near by, by the rats 

 or perhaps a weasel, and being no doubt in a bad 

 humor, and the season being well advanced, they 

 made forcible entrance into the adobe tenement of 

 their neighbors, and held possession of it for some 

 days, but I believe finally withdrew, rather than 

 live amid such a squeaky, noisy colony. I have 

 heard that these swallows, when ejected from their 

 homes in that way by the phoebe-bird, have been 

 known to fall to and mason up the entrance to the 

 nest while their enemy was inside of it, thus having 

 a revenge as complete and cruel as anything in 

 human annals. 



The bluebirds and the house wrens more fre- 



