Barn Swallows in Springtime 



163 



Once properly started, the nest soon took on the usual symmetrical, 

 inverted pear shape, and in about two weeks was beautifully complete, with 

 its feather lining and six little spotted eggs under the brooding bird. 



All the nests in the cow-shed now contained eggs, and the birds were 

 quite tame, allowing one to pass within a few feet without taking alarm, and 

 never making that harsh cry which one hears constantly after the young are 

 hatched. If a female bird flew from the nest, the male would take her place, 

 after a minute or two, poking around among the eggs before settling down. 

 He did not seem to stay long, however, and, when his mate appeared, would 

 fly off with a few rapidly repeated notes resembling a song, returning after a 

 few circlings to alight close beside the nest on a beam, or sometimes on the 

 nest's edge. Walking upon the cross-beams was often practised when the 

 birds were resting at noontime, but their little legs are so short and the birds 

 do it so gravely that the performance was always ridiculous. 



The young added new interest to the cow-shed colony, since, so far as 

 I could count, there were fifty-nine of them, all crazy for food and requiring 

 an enormous daily amount of insect-catching on the part of the parents. 

 During the day 

 the chattering 

 never ceased. 

 There was one 

 constant frolic 

 among the young, 

 and constant toil 

 for the parents, 

 until night shut 

 them in, and all 

 the little ones 

 huddled down 

 beneath the 

 mot her, while the 

 father settled 

 himself in a 

 corner nearby. 

 The young pair 

 hatched five ro- 

 bust birdlings. 



In the middle 



of the day, the cows, the sheep, and the chickens collected under the shed, as if 

 to amuse the Swallows ; for fifty-nine pairs of little eyes were then nearly always 

 upon them, the little birds even leaning far over the nest's edge in order to 

 have more room and to miss nothing. They now had a good supply of feathers, 

 and exercised their wings as well as threats when the parents came near. 



YOUNG BARN SWALLOWS NEARLY READY TO LEAYE NEST 



