94 



Bird - Lore 



to investif^ate two other boxes which I had placed near by. May 21, an- 

 another pair of Swallows took one of the new boxes. 



From April 17 to May 7, the Swallows were near their box all the 

 time, but were never seen to enter. 



On May 8, came the first signs of building. Straw and feathers were 

 the chief materials used for building. To procure these materials the 

 Swallows lit upon the ground, where they were exceedingly clumsy, resting 

 upon their long wings. 



On' May 21, the Swallows had become more quiet, which led me to 

 believe that eggs were in the nest. To verify my belief I tapped the tree, 

 and out flew a Swallow. Now I knew that there were eggs. 



TRHE SWALLOWS AT HOME 



Then, for several days, more than one of the Swallows was rarely seen. 

 On June 3, however, the birds were flying merrily about, and I could hear 

 the young squealing in the box. The old birds were now kept busy getting 

 food for their hungry young. 



On the morning of June 16, six young Swallows were seen in the door- 

 way of the box, taking their first peep at the outside world. They now 

 had to be fed much oftener. Here is a record of the number of times the 

 young were fed, for about thirty minutes, which serves as a fair example 

 of the number of times they were fed all day long: Fed once at 3.25, 3.37, 

 3.39 and 3.40; twice at 3.44 and once at 3.59. It then began to rain, 

 and the Swallows went inside until it stopped, when they resumed as 

 before. On this same day, a little later, two of the young fell out of the 

 box, and 1 replaced them. 



On June 17, I began to take some photographs of the box. While do- 



