134 
BARN SWALLOW. 
inches by five, the height externally seven inches. This 
shell is formed of mud, mixed with fine hay, as plasterers 
do their mortar with hair, to make it adhere the better ; 
the mud seems to have been placed in regular strata, or 
layers, from side to side ; the hollow of this cone (the shell of 
which is about an inch in thickness) is filled with fine hay, 
well stuffed in ; above that is laid a handful of very large 
downy geese feathers. The eggs are five, white, specked, 
and spotted all over with reddish brown. Owing to the semi- 
transparency of the shell, the eggs have a slight tinge of 
flesh colour. The whole weighs about two pounds. 
They have generally two broods in the season. The first 
make their appearance about the second week in June; and 
the last brood leave the nest about the 10th of August. 
Though it is not uncommon for twenty, and even thirty, pair 
to build in the same barn, yet every thing seems to be con- 
ducted with great order and alfection; all seems harmony 
among them, as if the interest of each were that of all. 
Several nests are often within a few inches of each other ; 
yet no appearance of discord or quarrelling takes place in 
this peaceful and affectionate community. 
When the young are fit to leave the nest, the old ones 
entice them out by fluttering backwards and forwards, twitter- 
ing and calling to them every time they pass ; and the young 
exercise themselves, for several days, in short essays of this 
kind within doors, before they first venture abroad. As soon 
as they leave the barn, they are conducted by their parents 
to the trees, or bushes, by the pond, creek, or river shore, or 
other suitable situation, where their proper food is most 
abundant, and where they can be fed with the greatest con- 
venience to both parties. Now and then they take a short 
excursion themselves, and are also frequently fed while on 
wing by an almost instantaneous motion of both parties, rising 
perpendicularly in air, and meeting each other. About the 
middle of August they seem to begin to prepare for their 
departure. They assemble on the roof in great numbers. 
