men came and made barns with such
comfortable places for building.

"To be sure there are swallows to this day who prefer the bank of a
brook or the side of a cave for their nesting-place. But we barn
swallows like the eaves best."

"You, too, are an early bird," said Phyllis. "Where did you spend the
winter?"

There was a great twittering among the returning swallows just then and
Phyllis was obliged to wait for a reply. Back came the bird after a
moment.

"We went south last October," he said. "Late in September we gathered
in great flocks in the marshes.

"For days we stayed there waiting for the entire company to gather. At
length on one of the blue October days we flew southward.

"There were hundreds of birds in the flock. We looked like a small
cloud, as we skimmed and darted through the air. As we flew, the flock
was a half mile long.

"We spent the winter in South America. There are delicious insects
there. But for all that we love the north country best.

"By and bye Mother Nature whispered to us. She said that it was
nest-building time in the northland. Such a twittering and fluttering
there was when this news came.

"That very afternoon we started north. Day after day we flew. We met
other great flocks as we travelled, who joined us.

"Day after day we flew northward. We did not stop to eat, but caught
our food on the wing.

"Now we lunched on moths and flies. Again we dined on grasshoppers.
Any insect foolish enough to trust itself in the air at the time we
passed served as food.

"We arrived here only a few days ago. It is not yet very warm, but
here under the eaves on the sunny side of the barn it is quite
comfortable.

"We are so busy with this nest-building and settling for the summer.
You see we swallows do not live alone. There are always flocks of us
together.

"We should be lonely if we lived only in pairs. That is the reason
that we build a whole little village of nests under your eaves."

"You build very queer nests," said Phyllis. "They are neither like the
robin's nor the chickadee's nests."

"No, indeed, no robin or chickadee could build such nests as the
swallow. You see we make the soft mud from the brookside into little
balls and carry it in our bills. With it we mix straws and grasses.
This holds the clay together. When the outer clay wall is finished we
line the nest with soft grasses and feathers."

[Illustration: "'No robin or chickadee coul