70 THE SECOND BOOK OF BIRDS 
the shorter tail feathers. When he spreads his 
tail, it is very beautiful. 
He is called barn swallow because he prefers 
a barn for a nesting-place. Up on the beams, 
close under the roof, the pair build their mud 
cradle. It is interesting to see them at work. 
When they have chosen a place, they go to some 
puddle in the road. They stand around it on 
their: tiny feet, holding their wings straight up 
like a butterfly’s. Then they take up some of 
the wet earth in their beaks, and work it around 
till it is made into a little pill. With this pill 
they fly to the place they have selected, and 
stick it on to the beam. Then they go back for 
more. So they go on, till they have built up 
the walls of the nest, an inch thick, and three 
or four inches high. Sometimes they put layers 
of fine grass in, but often they use nothing but 
mud. Then they line it with feathers which 
they pick up in the chicken yard. 
Some swallows build a platform beside the 
nest, where one of the pair can rest at night; 
and when the little ones get big enough to fill 
up the nest, both parents can sleep there. 
When the swallows are flying about low over 
the grass, looking as if they were at play, they 
are really catching tiny insects as they go. And 
when they have nestlings to feed, they collect a 
