194 
ORDERS OF BIRDS— PERCHERS AND SINGERS 
the nearest pond, it brings pellets of mud, and 
sticks a lot of them in a solid circle, against the 
outside wall of the barn, and close up under the 
eaves. Upon this, working most industriously 
to finish before previous layers have had time 
to dry, the cup-shaped nest is built out, pellet 
by pellet. At the last, the cup is narrowed down 
to a tube barely large enough to admit the bird, 
and the opening thrusts out into the air, usually 
tilted slightly upward. 
All the members of a flock of Swallows build 
close together, nest joined to nest very frequently, 
are the Cliff, Bank and Tree Swallows. The 
Barn-Swallow can be distinguished from these 
three by its very long and deeply forked tail, 
the tails of all the others being rather short. 
THE TANAGER FAMILY. 
Tanagridae. 
he male Scarlet Tanager 1 is one of the most 
showy small birds of our American Passeres. 
Excepting its wings, which are jet black, its en- 
tire pi mage is of a clear scarlet hue, as bright 
CLIFF-SWALLOW AND NESTS. 
Nests under eaves of log house, photographed by E. R. Warren. 
and thus depends a most interesting Swallow 
town, usually called a “colony.” Surely, any 
one who is not pleased and cheered by their 
sweet chattering and chirping under the eaves 
is “ fit for treason, stratagems and spoils.” Their 
flight is poetry expressed in motion. In catch- 
ing the insects which constitute their food, they 
love to skim close to the surfaces of ponds and 
streams. 
There are three Swallows which so much re- 
semble each other it requires a reference to a 
good handbook of birds to identify them. These 
as the brightest ribbon. There is no precious 
stone which compares with it, for beside it the 
ruby is dull. The .cardinal grosbeak is not nearly 
so bright as the male Tanager. 
Wherever seen, the male Scarlet Tanager 
fixes the attention of the observer, and chal- 
lenges admiration. It is an early spring arrival 
from the South, and in Washington, D. C., I 
have seen it in the parks while the trees were 
yet leafless. Some of those which came last year 
to the Zoological Park, New York, felt so secure 
1 Pi-ran'ga e-ryth-ro-me'las. Length, 6.50 inches. 
