The Barn Swallow 
99 
hay among the rafters the swallows go and 
come, so that, quite unconsciously, you will 
associate them with happy hours as long as you 
live. 
High up on some beam, too high for the 
children to reach, let us hope, a pair of barn 
swallows will plaster their mud cradle. Did 
you ever see them gathering pellets of wet soil 
in their bills at some roadside puddle? It is, 
perhaps, the only time you can ever catch them 
with their feet on the earth. Each mud pill 
must be carried to the barn and fastened on to 
the rafter. Countless trips are made to the 
puddle before a sufficient number of pellets 
are worked into the deep mud walls of the ample 
nursery. Usually grass is mixed with the mud, 
but some swallows make their bricks without 
straw. A lining of fine hay and plenty of 
feathers from the chicken yard seem to be 
essential for their comfort, which is a pity, be- 
cause almost always chicken feathers are 
infested with lice, and lice kill more young birds 
than we like to think about. When there is a 
nestful of fledglings to feed, sticky little pellets 
of insects, caught on the wing, are carried to 
them by both parents from daylight to dusk. 
Do notice how tirelessly they work! 
In a family famous for graceful, rapid flight, 
the barn swallow easily excels all his relations. 
The deep fork in his tail enables him to steer 
