OCR Text |
Show BUILDS ITS NEST OF MUD Under the Eaves of Houses CI iff Swallows Make Their Homes. Years ago, before houses and barns were as plentiful as they are now, the cliff swallow built its house of tiny mud bricks on the side of a rocky cliff, says the Philadelphia , North American. The nest builders find a convenient patch of clay, roll up the mud into tiny pellets and carry them to their nesting site. There they fashion them into a home as skillfully skill-fully as any bricklayer could do it, rounding it over the top like a roof and leaving a round opening for a door. Because these nests were usu; ally found on the sides of cliffs they named the bird the cliff swallow. Today the bird doesh't have to find a cliff for its home. A sheltered place under the eaves of a barn will suit it just as well. You'll find more cliff swallows today at home under the eaves than you will in their ancestral castles on the rocks. The bird wears a shiny blue black coat and a brownish yellow vest. Its tail, a reddish brown, is only slightly forked, which distinguishes it from the regular "swallow tails." Perhaps you have been told that the nest of the cliff swallow is infested with bedbugs, and perhaps you have torn down all the nests you could find to get rid of the pests. This is a common slander against the swallow. The nest contains no Insects which can be communicated to houses. On the other hand, the cliff swallow performs per-forms immeasurable benefit by destroying de-stroying many leaf bugs and weevils. |