A Family of Tree Swallows 



About ten days after the discovery of the 

 nest the first signs of life were heard from 

 within the hole, and a few days later the young 

 swallows appeared at the entrance looking in- 

 terestedly out at the world. As their doorway 

 was only large enough to hold one at a time, 

 there was a continual struggle for this point of 

 vantage. The young must now have been be- 

 tween two and three weeks old, judging from 

 the time the nest was found, and the old birds 

 no longer guarded the entrance. They usually 

 pushed the eager young back before feeding 

 them. They had grown very irritable for 

 some reason, perhaps from having to hurry so 

 strenuously for a livelihood, for they fought 

 each other off when meeting at the nest, and 

 once inside one frequently sat there malig- 

 nantly preventing its mate from entering. 



Three weeks after discovering the nest, I en- 

 larged the entrance in order to remove and 

 photograph the young swallows. I was not 



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