8 Bird Portraits 
with the rest of the tail the peculiar figure known as “swallow-tail.” 
The head, back, wings, and tail are all of a beautiful lustrous blue, 
and the tail, when spread, shows large white spots in the inner 
feathers. The under parts vary from whitish in immature birds to 
a rich chestnut in fully mature ones, who have also the throat and 
forehead of a darker reddish brown. The bill opens far back, so 
that there is a wide cavity to engulf any insect which may be met 
in the ceaseless flight backward and forward over grass and water. 
The nest of the Barn Swallow is familiar to all who have 
enjoyed life on a farm. It is made of straws and grass, plastered 
together with mud, and is placed on a beam or rafter in the barn. 
One hospitable farmer drove a horseshoe into a beam, and on this 
ledge a swallow built each year. Through the open door or window 
of the barn the swallows fly in and out, and up into the gloom above, 
where twittering sounds tell of young that are being fed. As soon 
as the young are old enough, the parents urge them to fly, and in 
a few days they become skillful enough to take food on the wing. 
This is an extremely pretty spectacle; the parent and the young 
meet, and then fly upward for an instant, their breasts apparently 
touching, while the food is passed from one bill to the other. One 
July afternoon the writer watched a row of six young swallows 
clinging to the shingles on a barn roof, every mouth gaping for 
food whenever the parents approached. When the father brought 
the food, the bird sitting nearest him got the mouthful, and in 
an instant later another from the mother. Five times in succes- 
sion this favored youngster was fed, while the other five seemed 
neglected. But when the little fellow had all that he could hold, 
he went to sleep, and the next wide-open mouth received the food. 
What seemed at first an unfair arrangement was after all the surest 
way to feed all alike. 
