THE EAVE SWALLOW. 359 



unable to breed "for want of suitable accommodations." 

 (Coues.) In the great canons of the west, along the vertical 

 walls beneath shelving rocks, sometimes where great rivers 

 rush between frowning battlements, the strange, bottle- 

 shaped nests of this species, according to its primitive style, 

 are hung by thousands in the most fantastic arrangements. 

 Among all our birds none has discovered so great an incli- 

 nation to accommodate itself to man, and to avail itself 

 of the advantages of civilization, as the various species of 

 the Swallow. The Purple Martin abandons the holes in 

 trees and takes up his abode in almost any convenience 

 about human habitations; the Fork-tailed Swallow has 

 abandoned the trees of the forest and the caves, for the 

 rafters and peaks of the barn, and so has received the 

 name, Barn-swallow; the White-bellied Swallow is inclined 

 to leave his hollow stump for a hole in the wall; the so-called 

 Chimney Swallow, or Swift, has left the hollow trees 

 formerly appropriated, and will rather endure the daily 

 smoke of the chimney than leave the neighborhood of man; 

 even the Sand Martin has shown some inclination to take 

 to cavities under the bridge, and so join the thoroughfare 

 of man, rather than remain in the banks of lonely streams; 

 and how the Eave Swallows will swell their colonies from 

 year to year under those eaves which afford a convenience, 

 every one has had opportunity to note. This tenement of 

 mud is a very artistic thing of its kind. The swell of the 

 main part, the narrowing jug-nosed entrance, so exactly 

 rounded, and the well cemented pellets of mud, giving the 

 external surface such a neat, pebbly appearance, are all 

 entirely beyond human imitation, as I fully satisfied myself 

 by many experiments in the days of my childhood. How 

 cozy it looks up there under the broad eaves. Soft bits of 

 hay and an abundance of down are there, to accommo- 



