DO BIRDS IMPROVE AS ARCHITECTS? 75 



stable. Some of the nests were completed, nicely lined 

 with soft white feathers, and contained eggs. I had 

 spent many hours with my favorites the swallows, 

 watching their graceful movements and dainty ways, 

 until they came to look upon me as their friend, and 

 would continue their building with me standing so 

 close that many times I could have put my hand upon 

 a workman. 



For a day or two something had prevented my usual 

 visits to the swallows, when my brother, with mock 

 gravity, informed me that a great calamity had befallen 

 my favorites — that a pair of tiny wrens had made war 

 upon them, and the swalloVs (a dozen or more), with 

 everything at stake, had made an inglorious retreat, and 

 had taken up their quarters in a grain barn near at 

 hand. I at once repaired to the scene of disaster, and 

 found the tiny victors the undisputed possessors of the 

 premises. They had already commenced to rear their 

 mansion, having taken a swallow's nest, eggs and all, 

 for the foundation, of their own structure. 



The sprightly little housewife darted an angry look 

 out of her bright eyes at me, and no doubt contem- 

 plated driving me as she had the swallows ; but I was 

 not to be intimidated: she should either go on with 

 her work, with myself as witness, or give up the site 

 she had surreptitiously taken. The male, less suspicious 

 than the female, continued his work. They came 

 through a knot-hole in the side of the stable with all 

 their building material, and then, empty-mouthed, flew 



