62 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
tail are brownish- black, with greenish shades in it, 
and the deeply-forked tail has on each side a single 
feather an inch and a half longer than the one next 
to it. 
Early in May it begins to build its nest, which 
is usually against a beam or rafter in a barn or shed. 
The outward part of the nest is composed of pellets 
of mud tempered with fine hay, and rendered more 
firm by the glutinous saliva of the bird ; within is 
laid a bed of fine hay, and the lining is made of 
loosely-arranged feathers. The five white eggs are 
spotted over with reddish-brown. There are usually 
two broods in a season. Twenty or thirty nests may 
sometimes be seen in the same barn, and two or three 
in a cluster, where each pursues his busy avocation in 
the most perfect harmony. 
“ ‘ When the young are fledged, the parents by 
their actions and twitterings entice them out of the 
nest to exercise their wings within the barn, where 
they sit in rows amid the timbers of the roof or 
huddle closely together in cool or rainy weather for 
mutual warmth. At length they venture out with 
their parents, but, incapable of -constant exercise, 
may now be seen on trees, bushes, or fence-rails near 
some pond or creek, convenient to their food, which 
is thrown up to them from the crops of their atten- 
tive parents.’ 
