. Wild life of orchard and field;. breeding-place of all the three spe-cies I have mentioned is in caves and crevices ofrock, the irregularities and hollows of limestonecrags affording them the best chances. Swal-lows Cave/ at Nahant, is remembered as one oftheir hospices. I have seen all three species breed-ing together among the ragged ledges of MiddlePark, Colorado; but considerable differences werenoticeable between the houses of these uncivilizedbuilders and those of their educated brethren atthe East, who now, perhaps, would find it ratherhard to rough it as did their ancestors. Under th
. Wild life of orchard and field;. breeding-place of all the three spe-cies I have mentioned is in caves and crevices ofrock, the irregularities and hollows of limestonecrags affording them the best chances. Swal-lows Cave/ at Nahant, is remembered as one oftheir hospices. I have seen all three species breed-ing together among the ragged ledges of MiddlePark, Colorado; but considerable differences werenoticeable between the houses of these uncivilizedbuilders and those of their educated brethren atthe East, who now, perhaps, would find it ratherhard to rough it as did their ancestors. Under the shelter of warm barns, and with suchan abundance of food at hand that they have plentyof leisure between meals to cultivate their tastesand give scope to their ingenuity, our barn andeave swallows have shown a wondrous improve-ment in architecture. The nests of the barn-swal-lows that I saw at the hot sulphur springs in Col-orado consisted only of a loose bed of straw andfeathers, for the hollow floors of the niches in which 212. Nests of the Wild Cliff-s^atto^ WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD they were placed formed cavity and barrier for thesafety of the eggs. Some nests, resting on moreexposed ledges, had a rude foundation and rim ofmud, but did not compare with the elaborate half-bowls, lined with hay and feathers, that are plas-tered by the same species so firmly against the raf-ters of our barns, or with the large nest that isbalanced on the beam, with its edges built up sohigh that the callow young can hardly climb, muchless tumble, out until quite ready to fly. Never-theless, the general character of the nest is thesame; the Eastern, civilized swallows have onlymade use of their superior advantages to perfectthe inherited idea. In the case of the barn-swal-low, its civilization results in an addition to itspains (is it not a natural consequence?), in thatits nest now is required to be much larger, morecarefully, and hence more laboriously, made. Onthe other hand, its ne
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectanimalb, bookyear1902
