CARPENTERS, MASONS, AND MINERS 
resembling those of the chimney-swallow 
but less ‘transparent. In another, the newly 
hatched young were absolutely naked, and 
so tiny that they looked like a tangle of 
angleworms. 
Unless you have watched these little min- 
ers when with fluttering wings they strike 
the first blow into the hard clayey bank, 
you will be puzzled as to how it is done. 
Feet and bill take an equal share, and but 
for the wings one might suppose a small 
gray mouse at work. The soil must be 
stiffer than light sand in order to prevent a 
“ cave in,” and instances are recorded of 
excavations made by bank-swallows in lime- 
stone. Those I have investigated have been 
in clay and gravelly soil, and even these 
offered a discouraging resistance to the deli- 
cate beak and claws. Watch from an am- 
bush a colony of bank-swallows when the 
sun is shining full into each little home. 
A head appears at nearly every doorway. 
The babies are peeping out curiously at 
the big, bright, wonderful world. A step 
205 
