252 THE BLUEBIRD. 



withdraws and waits near by while he goes 

 in and looks it over. On coming out he 

 exclaims very plainly, " Excellent ! excel- 

 lent ! " and away the two go again for more 

 material. 



The bluebirds, when they build about the 

 farm -buildings, sometimes come in conflict 

 with the swallows. The past season I knew 

 a pair to take forcible possession of the 

 domicile of a pair of the latter, the cliff 

 species, that now stick their nests under the 

 eaves of the barn. The bluebirds had been 

 broken up in a little bird-house near by, by 

 the rats or perhaps a weasel, and being no 

 doubt in a bad humor, and the season being 

 well advanced, they made forcible entrance 

 into the adobe tenement of their neighbors, 

 and held possession of it for some days, but 

 I believe finally withdrew, rather than live 

 amid such a squeaky, noisy colony. I have 

 heard that these swallows, when ejected from 

 their homes in that way by the phoebe-bird, 

 have been known to fall to and mason up 

 the entrance to the nest while their enemy 

 was inside of it, thus having a revenge as 

 complete and cruel as anything in human 

 annals. 



The bluebirds and the house-wrens more 



