192 FMIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 



beam, with its edges built up so high that the callow young 

 can hardly climb, much less tumble out, until quite ready 

 to fly. Nevertheless, the general character of the nest is 

 the same ; the eastern, civilized swallows have only made 

 use of their superior advantages to perfect the inherited 

 idea. In the case of the barn-swallow, its civilization re- 

 sults in an addition to its pains (is it not a natural conse- 

 quence ?), in that its nest now is required to be much larger, 

 more carefully, and hence more laboriously, made. On the 

 other hand, its neighbor, the eave-swallow, has contrived to 

 save itself labor by the change from wild life. 



This latter species is sometimes called the republican 

 swallow, because at the breeding -season it gathers in ex- 

 tensive colonies, where its homes are crowded together as 

 closely as the cells in a honey-comb, one wall often serv- 

 ing for two or more contiguous structures. The nests are 

 gourd-shaped, or like a chemist's retort, and are fastened by 

 the bulb to the cliff, generally where it overhangs, with the 

 curving necks opening outward and affording an entrance 

 just large enough to admit the owner. This retort is con- 

 structed of pellets of mud, well compacted in the little ma- 

 son's beak, and made adhesive by mixture with the glue- 

 like saliva with which all swallows are provided. In this 

 snug receptacle the pretty eggs are laid upon a bed of soft 



