56 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



of a barn or on a telegraph wire, where they look 

 like rows of little mutes. It is funny enough to 

 see them light on a wire. Fluttering over it for 

 a moment before settling down, they sway back 

 and forth till you are sure they must fall off. 



r^Sr- '" ,. 



The roads afford them much occupation. When 

 not making statistics about the passers-by, or col- 

 lecting mud for their nests, they take dust baths 

 in the road. They usually build inside barns or 

 covered bridges, lining their nests with feathers, 

 but a case is recorded of a nest under the eaves of 

 a house, which was made entirely of " rootlets and 

 grass," though thickly lined with downy chicken 

 feathers. Mr. Burroughs tells of a barn nest 

 " saddled in the loop of a rope that was pendant 

 from a peg in the peak." 



