292 ^Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



Surely the air is the natural element of these swallows! 

 They can scarcely compose themselves to rest for a few 

 moments. Their actions on any perch indicate that it is 

 greater effort for them to sit still than to flutter here and 

 there in the air which bears them up so lightly. Even 

 when the cares of home claim the attention of the female, 

 she frequently slips out for a few minutes of restful flight 

 about the neighborhood. None of the swallows are gifted 

 with musical voices, and the only notes we hear from them 

 are faint squeaks uttered as they wing their strolling 

 flight, or when they seize a choice morsel for their waiting 

 maw. Occasionally one of the swallows can be seen to 

 hover with fluttering wings at the entrance of a cavity, 

 and perhaps we can distinguish several unfledged heads 

 crowding out of the aperture in hungry expectation. Then 

 the careful mother-bird will alight on the rim of the 

 cavity and lovingly fill the emptiness stretched toward 

 her, after which she will flutter away to replenish the 

 larder, and the youngsters will drop back into their 

 downy cradle in the cavity. 



The nesting season opens early in May. I have found 

 nests with full complements of eggs on ihe 10th of May, 

 though in a season somewhat earlier than the average. 

 Both birds of a pair fetch materials for the nest, though 

 the male generally delivers his contribution to the female, 

 and she disposes it in the cavity. If he alight by her side 

 with a feather in his mouth, she will earnestly but gently 

 pull it away from him, and herself fly with it to the nest. 

 Frequently the foundation of the nest is a loose layer of 

 dried grass, and upon that is the true nest composed of 

 soft feathers of water-fowl or the domestic chicken-, Some- 

 times the nest is made entirely of soft feathers, and I have 

 often wondered where the birds obtained them. They 

 certainly do not find them altogether about their watery 

 domains. Probably they pick up the feathers dropped by 

 the domestic fowls which sometimes wander along the 

 banks of the river and lake. The male is so interested in 

 the construction of the habitation that he will carry 

 feathers to the place after the eggs have all been deposited, 

 which the female will caressingly receive and dispose 

 properly, the eggs being sometimes covered by later ad- 



