Song Birds and Water Fowl 
the road, I found it to be the source of their 
building material, quite a flock being engaged in 
collecting it. Alighting at the spot, they in- 
stantly raised their long and slender wings high 
over their backs, like the tern at the moment 
when it touches the ground ; and, with the tail 
half erect, like a wren’s, they maintained this 
peculiar attitude, with a continual tremulous 
motion of the wings, while they walked around, 
picking up bits of mud here and there, and 
compacting them into a single mass. Stand- 
ing where I was unobserved, I saw them come 
again and again, and invariably they assumed 
and kept this position so long as they were 
collecting the material. Sometimes they re- 
mained standing by the spot for a moment after 
alighting, with wings entirely closed, but they 
were raised to a perpendicular as soon as they 
began work. The action was as novel as it 
was graceful, a pose well worthy of a picture, 
except that, from its rarity, it would common- 
ly be pronounced unnatural. Barn swallows, 
which one finds everywhere, and distinguish- 
able from all other swallows by the forked tail, 
also make their nests mostly of mud, but with 
some dried grass intermixed, which makes it 
more adhesive; and these are often attached to 
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