434 RESULT OF THE CRESCENT SWALLOW's WORK 



there is a standing place. This is soon occupied by one of the 

 pair, probably the female, who now stays at home to welcome 

 her mate with redoubled cries of joy and ecstatic quivering of 

 the wings, as he brings fresh pellets, which the pair in closest 

 consultation dispose to their entire satisfaction. In three or 

 four days, perhaps, the deed is done ; the house is built, and 

 nothing remains but to furnish it. The poultry-yard is visited, 

 and laid under contribution of feathers ; hay, leaves, rags, 

 paper, string — Swallows are not very particular — may be 

 added ; and then the female does the rest of the "furnishing" 

 by her own particular self. Not Impossibly, just at this period, 

 a man comes with a pole, and demolishes the whole affair ; or 

 the enfant terrible of the premises appears, and removes the 

 eggs to enrich his sanded tray of like treasures ; or a tom-cat 

 reaches for his supper. But more probably matters are so 

 propitious that in due season the nest decants a full brood of 

 Swallows — and 1 wish that nothing more harmful ever came 

 out of the bottle. 



Seeing how these birds work the mud in their mouths, some 

 have supposed that the nests are agglutinated, to some extent 

 at least, by the saliva of the birds. It is far from an unreason- 

 able idea — ^the Chimney Swift sticks her bits of twigs together, 

 and glues the frail cup to the wall with viscid saliva; and 

 some of the Old World Swifts build nests of gummy spittle, 

 which cakes on drying, not unlike gelatine. Undoubtedly 

 some saliva is mingled with the natural moisture of the mud ; 

 but the readiness with which these Swallows' nests crumble 

 on drying shows that saliva enters slightly into their composi- 

 tion — practically not at all — and that this fluid possesses no 

 special viscosity. Much more probably, the moisture of the 

 birds' mouths helps to soften and temper the pellets, rather 

 than to agglutinate the dried edifice itself. 



In various parts of the West, especially along the Missouri 

 and the Colorado, where I have never failed to find clustering 

 nesfs of the Cliif Swallow, I have occasionally witnessed some 

 curious associates of these birds. In some of the navigable 

 canons of the Colorado, I have seen the bulky nests of the 

 Great Blue Heron on flat ledges of rock, the faces of which 

 were stuccoed with Swallow-nests. How these frolicsome 

 creatures must have swarmed around the sedate and impertur- 

 bable Herodias, when she folded up her legs and closed her 

 eyes, and vrent off into the dreamland of incubation, undis- 



