. Bird stories . alf mile long. We spent the winter in South are delicious insects there. But for allthat we love the north country best. By and bye Mother Nature whispered tous. She said that it was nest-building timein the northland. Such a twittering and flut-tering there was when this news came. 64 THE SWALLOW That very afternoon we started after day we flew. We met other greatflocks as we travelled, who joined us. Day after day we flew northward. Wedid not stop to eat, but caught our food onthe wing. Now we lunched on moths and we dined on grasshoppers.
. Bird stories . alf mile long. We spent the winter in South are delicious insects there. But for allthat we love the north country best. By and bye Mother Nature whispered tous. She said that it was nest-building timein the northland. Such a twittering and flut-tering there was when this news came. 64 THE SWALLOW That very afternoon we started after day we flew. We met other greatflocks as we travelled, who joined us. Day after day we flew northward. Wedid not stop to eat, but caught our food onthe wing. Now we lunched on moths and we dined on grasshoppers. Any insectfoolish enough to trust itself in the air at thetime we passed served as food. We arrived here only a few days ago. Itis not yet very warm, but here under the eaveson the sunny side of the barn it is quite com-fortable. We are so busy with this nest-buildingand settling for the summer. You see we swal-lows do not live alone. There are alwaysflocks of us together. We should be lonely if we lived only in. No robin orchickadeecould build such nestsas the swallow UNDER THE EAVES 65 pairs. That is the reason that we builda whole little village of nests under youreaves. You build very queer nests/ said Phyl-lis. They are neither like the robins northe chickadees nests. No, indeed, no robin or chickadee couldbuild such nests as the swallow. You see wemake the soft mud from the brookside intolittle balls and carry it in our bills. With itwe mix straws and grasses. This holds theclay together. When the outer clay wall isfinished we line the nest with soft grasses andfeathers. I notice there are a great many chickenfeathers in the barnyard. I shall line my nestwith the softest, fluffiest feathers that I canfind there. By and bye my little mate will sit in the 66 THE SWALLOW dear clay nest and over four or five or pos-sibly six little eggs. I shall never be able to see them, sighedPhyllis. They are up so high. Tell meabout them. Oh, my eggs are beautiful, said the swal-low. The
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