THE SWALLJOWS BROOD i8j 



and few concealments, compared with other birds who 

 are mostly a little furtive; but there is one mystery 

 which we cannot quite penetrate. The presence has been 

 detected in other years and in other places ; but never 

 before noted so precisely. 



At the back of the balcony is a broad water-pipe run 

 ning at a very gentle slope along the wall. A pair of 

 swallows began building a second nest on the top of this 

 pipe early in June. They were singularly slow about it, 

 partly from shyness, for a bed in the balcony and a fre 

 quent coming and going of people and a dog were new 

 to their experience. One of them flew about the lawn for 

 several minutes with a large white feather in its mouth, 

 frequently flying to the opening of the balcony but not 

 daring to enter. Indeed, we were forced to vacate the 

 place for a few minutes lest she should be weighted down 

 by the burden. This same feather has never quite con 

 sented to an easy relation with the rest of the structure, 

 but remains as a visible excrescence over the muddy 

 rim, and occasionally receives a petulant peck. 



The cock bird has been a great source of encourage 

 ment, but otherwise not of much direct service in the 

 building. When he flew in and found the hen at work, 

 or later on the nest, he was always unmistakably de 

 lighted. Sometimes he would perch on the pipe close 

 by and sing almost in her ear, and sometimes she would 

 reply in curiously gruff and uncomely notes. It is a mis 

 take and a common mistake to suppose that hen birds 

 do not sing. The bullfinch, for example, is a notable ex 

 ception to the alleged law ; and few if any are wholly in 

 articulate ; but nearly all sing badly, the hen swallow very 

 badly. The beauty and variety of the cock s song has not, 

 perhaps, received proper recognition. This cock often 

 perched on the tine of a red deer s antler hung a yard or 



