220 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



The nest is softly lined with hens feathers and then the home for 

 their little ones is completed, the pellets of mud on the outside giving 

 it a very rustic appearance. This nest is built in a very similar manner 

 to that of the Phoebe, but the latter nearly always decorate the outside 

 of their nest with moss, while'the Barn Swallow very rarely does. 



After the four or five brown speckled eggs have hatched, the interior 

 of the barn becomes a regular chatter box, with its five or six pairs of 

 excited and enthusiastic parents feeding their little ones and singing or 

 talking all the time. At intervals during the day, all the parent birds 

 will congregate on the cross rafters and hold long conversations, pre- 

 sumably on the respective merits of their youngsters, or on the proper 

 method of feeding them. When the young birds are about half grown, 

 and begin to feel as if they were "pretty big" their voices are heard at 

 all times when they are not asleep. They leave the nest when almost 

 three weeks old, and spend a day or two in exercising their wings, 

 flying from rafter to rafter. When they feel that they have control of 

 their wings, they enter the outer world, and for weeks are taken in 

 hand by their parents, who initiate them into the art of aerial gymnas- 

 tics. It is a very common sight during the latter part of the summer 

 to see an old bird, denoted by the long tail and bright colors, followed 

 by a young, duller, short tailed one, the latter executing every move 

 and turn made by his tutor. 



When the weather is suitable. Barn Swallows will raise two or three 

 broods in a season, the first brood accompanying their parents as they 

 go back and forth to feed the new little ones. Until they depart in the 

 fall, both adults and young return to the barn each night, where they 

 roost on the rafters. 



Of course, nesting as they do, they have very little fear of the hu- 

 man race, and it has always seemed to me that, when out in the fields, 

 they seem to delight in feeding as near you as possible, returning 

 time after time to skim close by you or to swoop just over your head. 

 The accompanying excellent photograph of a Barn Swallow's nest and 

 eggs, by Mr. Moulthrope, was quite a difficult piece of camera work. 

 The nest was located in the peak of a barn, and about forty feet from the 

 floor. The outfit was fastened to the top of a long ladder; the camera 

 was then focussed and light thrown on the nest by means of a mirror, 

 placed near the barn door; this light in turn was reflected into the nest 

 by another mirror placed just above it. 



