The Barn Swallow 99 



hay among the rafters the swallows go and 

 come, so that, quite unconsciously, you will 

 associate them with happy hours as long as you 

 live. 



High up on some beam, too high for the 

 children to reach, let us hope, a pair of bam 

 swallows will plaster their mud cradle. Did 

 you ever see them gathering pellets of wet soil 

 in their bills at some roadside puddle? It is, 

 perhaps, the only time you can ever catch them 

 with their feet on the earth. Each mud pill 

 must be carried to the bam and fastened on to 

 the rafter. Countless trips are made to the 

 puddle before a sufficient number of pellets 

 are worked into the deep mud walls of the ample 

 nursery. Usually grass is mixed with the mud, 

 but some swallows make their bricks without 

 straw. A lining of fine hay and plenty of 

 feathers from the chicken yard seem to be 

 essential for their comfort, which is a pity, be- 

 cause almost always chicken feathers are 

 infested with Hce, and lice kill more young birds 

 than we Hke to think about. When there is a 

 nestful of fledglings to feed, sticky little pellets 

 of insects, caught on the wing, are carried to 

 them by both parents from daylight to dusk. 

 Do notice how tirelessly they work! 



In a family famous for graceful, rapid flight, 

 the bam swallow easily excels all his relations. 

 The deep fork in his tail enables him to steer 



