NESTING OP THE BARN SWALLOW 411 



aside from its now habitual choice of rafters, I may finally 

 note that it sometimes takes forcible possession of the nests of 

 other species, for Mr. Allen has known a pair to turn Cliff Swal- 

 lows out of doors, and occupy the premises. 



I suppose I hardly need describe the nest itself — an object 

 as familiar to most persons as a cobweb or a pitch-fork, — an 

 untidy mass of raw material, Iresh from the bosom of mother 

 earth, with " hay seed in the hair", and a smell of the stable, 

 like the typical Granger himself. These nests are composed 

 ordinarily of little pellets of mud stuck together in layers, with 

 hay intervening ; for these birds have never learned, it seems, 

 to make " bricks without straw ", like their more ingenious 

 cousins of the eaves. Outside, the hay hangs unkempt ; in- 

 side these stout adobe walls, there is a good soft stuflBng of fine 

 grasses, and a thick warm bed of feathers. The nests vary- 

 endlessly in size, shape, and degree of finish, according to the 

 character of the site selected, the kind of materials most 

 available, the facility of gathering them, and doubtless also 

 the stress of impregnation under which the female may be 

 laboring. 



One point about this Swallow's nest-building, however, may 

 not be generally known. I give it in the words of my respected 

 friend Dr. Brewer, with whose lifelong observation of our 

 birds T have too frequent occasion to differ: — "A striking 

 peculiarity of these nests is frequently an extra platform built 

 against, but distinct from the nest itself, designed as a roosting- 

 plaee for the parents, used by one during incubation at night 

 or when not engaged in procuring food, and by both when the 

 young are large enough to occupy the whole nest. One of these 

 I found to be a separate structure from the nest, but of similar 

 materials, three inches in length and one and a half in breadth. 

 The nest had been for several years occupied by the same pair, 

 though none of their offspring ever returned to the same roof to 

 breed in their turn. Tet in some instances as many as fifty 

 pairs have been known to occupy the rafters of the same barn." 



Under ordinary circumstances, these Swallows raise more 

 than one brood each year, and usually four, five, or six are a 

 nestful. Notwithstanding the notorious regularity of their 

 migration, their breeding is rather an arbitrary matter, and it 

 is not uncommon to find at the same time nests containing 

 fresh eggs and others with fledglings. At this season, the 

 activity of the parents is at its maximum, and their energy is 



