The Wit of the Wild 



r 



among American birds is (or was, for it is now 

 almost extinct) the wild pigeon, which once so 

 loaded the trees with its nests and perching pairs 

 that limbs would break under their weight, and 

 this over spaces of forest several miles square. 

 To a greater or less degree this is the habit 

 of pigeons elsewhere, and doubtless it is owing 

 to this companionability in its temperament that 

 we have been able to domesticate many varieties 

 of this kind. 



Another tribe highly sociable in its nesting 

 as well as in its migratory life is that of the 

 swallows, which, in all parts of the world, not 

 only nestle in companies, but gather into im- 

 mense wandering bands as soon as their family 

 duties are over. 



Our eave-swallows, for example, whose bulb- 

 shaped nests of mud are set in rows beneath the 

 eaves of country barns, in primitive days at- 

 tached these adobe chambers in compact masses 

 against the faces of cliffs and clay banks. A 

 similar fondness for crowding characterizes all 

 sorts of swallows ; and that it implies a peculiar 

 companionability of temper is indicated by the 

 ^ 192 



