or; 
30 | THE WREN. 
adees’ doughnuts and flew away guiltily into their forest retreats. 
Only a few spring days were needed to bring them out in full force 
and to awaken to: new life their more noisy cousins the Crows, 
of which I saw no evidence until Washington’s birthday. I am 
told that the Crows are seldom seen there in the dead of winter, but 
that they suddenly make an appearance at the first signs of spring. 
* The only other winter bird noted’ was a single Junco which 
flashed shyly past me on February 20, showing: his white outer 
tail-feathers as he sped past and was lost to view.among the pines. 
On the whole the trip was a most pleasant one in spite of the 
small variety of birds, for it was areal joy to be out-of-doors observ- 
ing nature in its sparkling robe of snow. i Basins 
Charles Schweinfurth. 
EAVE SWALLOWS AND THEIR NESTS. 
Most of us know the Eave Swallows, with chestnut patches on 
throat and rump, here-in New England, as migrants only. A 
few summers ago, I took some care and great pleasure in watching 
a colony of the birds build their nests. Unfortunately, I left the 
vicinity before the young birds hatched, so this account will be 
restricted to the nests and eggs: . During the last two weeks of June, 
1 was in North Andover. Just back of the house where I was 
visiting, there was an old barn with:big, broad eaves. Under these 
eaves the swallows built their nests. : 
Partly on the wall of the barn and partly under the eaves, they 
began to plaster the little gray pellets of clay. Just where they 
procured this clay, I do not know, but I think it must have been 
from the wet bottom of a stone quarry a quarter of a mile away. 
At first the birds found difficulty in making the clay stick ’to the 
bare wall, so that a little pile of it formed under each of the half- 
dozen nesting sites. After the foundations were laid, the work 
progressed rapidly. Sometimes, I could see the dividing line be- 
tween the fresh clay of that day and the dry, hardened pellets of the 
day before. . The nests were all finished within a week of one another. 
It was wonderful to see how perfectly formed they were; conical, 
with the larger ends attached to the wood-work, and tapering to the 
circular entrances which were about 14 inches in diameter. Inside 
