Song Birds and Water Fowl 



the road, I found it to be the source of their 

 building material, quite a flock being engaged in 

 collecting it. Alighting at the spot, they in- 

 stantly raised their long and slender wings high 

 over their backs, like the tern at the moment 

 when it touches the ground ; and, with the tail 

 half erect, like a wren's, they maintained this 

 peculiar attitude, with a continual tremulous 

 motion of the wings, while they walked around, 

 picking up bits of mud here and there, and 

 compacting them into a single mass. Stand- 

 ing where I was unobserved, I saw them come 

 again and again, and invariably they assumed 

 and kept this position so long as they were 

 collecting the material. Sometimes they re- 

 mained standing by the spot for a moment after 

 alighting, with wings entirely closed, but they 

 were raised to a perpendicular as soon as they 

 began work. The action was as novel as it 

 was graceful, a pose well worthy of a picture, 

 except that, from its rarity, it would common- 

 ly be pronounced unnatural. Barn swallows, 

 which one finds everywhere, and distinguish- 

 able from all other swallows by the forked tail, 

 also make their nests mostly of mud, but with 

 some dried grass intermixed, which makes it 

 more adhesive ; and these are often attached to 

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