8o 



Bird - Lore 



interest, showing, again, the ingenuity and genuine intelligence which 

 so often surprises us in the study of birds. Their home was kept 

 perfectly clean by its constant care-taker. One of the full-grown 

 birds, with every feather, as far as I could see, entirely developed, 

 sat just long enough for me to photograph him, and then Hew from 

 the branch where I had placed him, down the stream and out of 

 sight, loudly chattering like an old bird. One more bird performed 

 the same feat, but before I was able to get him on my plate. The 

 rest I left in the nest, and no doubt they were all in the open air 

 that warm, sunn\- day, before nightfall. 



Swallows and Feathers 



BY LAURA G. PAGE 



HEN the Swallows returned, in the spring of 1897, 

 they found me an invalid in a New Hampshire 

 farm house. Kvery pleasant morning from tiie 

 sunny piazza which fronted the south and looked 

 out upon the barn, some rods awa}' across the 

 dooryard, I idly watched the birds as they flew in 

 and out the great barn door or slipped through a 

 broken pane in the window above. 



One morning, soon after their arrival, a few of them flew down 

 near the ground several times and tried to pick up a small feather. 

 Then it occurred to me to try to help them. From a basket of 

 feathers, in the woodshed close by, I took several and placed them 

 on the grass a few yards from the piazza. No sooner had I resumed 

 m)' seat than they were discovered. One Swallow had seen them and 

 was flj'ing swiftly back and forth above them, though lacking the 

 courage to try to get one. x\fter a moment he flew away to the barn, 

 and soon can^e back with two others close behind him. He had 

 evidently been to summon help. Thus ivinforced, the three at once 

 set about getting the feathers. First, one would dart swiftly across 

 the yard, diving close to the ground as he went, and the others 

 would follow in quick sxiccession. This they repeated several times 

 before one succeeded in seizing a feather. Then he triumphantly 

 flew with it high into the air and headed for the barn, with both the 

 other Swallows in hot pursuit. But he eluded them and disappeared 

 through the door with his prize. After a few moments a company of 

 Swallows came out of the barn and headed directly for the feathers, 

 .where the mananivers were repeated. 



