80 Tue Birps Asout Us. 
characterizes this beautiful bird is the gourd-shaped 
mud nest that it builds. The typical nest was a sym- 
metrical flattened oval with a “ bottle-neck” entrance. 
I remember seeing long rows of these under the pro- 
jecting roof ofan old barn. That was over thirty years 
ago; but now there seems to be a tendency to greater 
simplicity, and the last nests I saw were largely with- 
out this feature. Was it omitted because no longer 
a necessity ? It certainly was not because of a scarcity 
of building material. A correspondent of Warren’s, 
quoted in that author’s “ Birds of Pennsylvania,” re- 
fers to the entrances of some nests being from three 
to five inches long. On the other hand, I have found 
many a nest that was merely a teacup with a good- 
sized notch in the rim on one side. 
It sometimes happens that while the cliff-swallow’s 
colony occupy the available nesting space on the 
outside, more than 
one pair of barn- 
swallows occupy 
the inside, and pret- 
tier, more graceful, 
and useful birds do 
not exist. Ifa per- 
son atall interested 
in such matters will 
take the pains to 
watch a_ nesting 
Barn-swallow. barn-swallow, he 
will find that the 
bird is most beautifully clothed, and the feathers have, 
as a whole, a sheen equal to that upon the throat of 

