NESTLINGS OF FOREST AND MARSH 
through your memory. The task is a 
hard one, and it is also a useless one, for 
bank-swallows may be found in any place 
where there are sand-banks and_ water. 
But this colony is more or less famous 
on account of its numbers; and so it must 
be seen. 
Of all the birds that I have watched, none 
have been so timid and so delicate as these 
same bank-swallows. In one nest that we 
opened were four fully fledged young who 
popped out like shot from a cannon at the 
first disturbance. One of them flew into 
my hand, and died almost instantly from 
fright. It has been suggested to me since 
that this may have been only a feint; but 
if so, it succeeded, for I thought him dead 
and mourned my cruelty for days. Never 
again have I attempted to catch a bank- 
swallow. The nests were rudely excavated 
tunnels about two feet long, and a little 
larger at the inner end. Here was placed 
a lining of grass and feathers, and here in 
one nest we found six small white eggs, 
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