Harper's Young People, May 16, 1882 / An Illustrated Weekly

by Various

In July, 1874, I stopped for a few hours at the house of Mr. Mack, who owned a quartz mine in the neighboring mountain. As I sat on the veranda I noticed on one of the posts a singular nest, or rather it seemed to be a pile of nests. On examination I found that it was really made up of eight nests, built one upon the other; and that they were of two kinds: first one of soft materials (grass and hair, etc.), then one of mud, then the soft nest again, then the mud, and then in the upper nest (which was of mud) the bird which had built it was sitting on her eggs. In answer to my questions, Mrs. Mack gave me the following account.

In the spring of 1871 a pair of linnets began building a nest in the place which I saw. In this there was nothing uncommon. The linnets love to be about houses, and very frequently make their nests on any exposed beams which they can find in verandas or porches, rather than in trees or bushes. I have seen hundreds of them in such places. This pair of linnets quietly completed their nest, and it already held one or two eggs, when a pair of barn-swallows arrived, and after looking at the place, and evidently talking the matter over in their own fashion, decided to take possession of it for themselves by driving out the linnets, and forthwith a violent battle commenced.

CALIFORNIA LINNET.

But before going further, I must stop a minute to tell you a little about the two kinds of birds. The linnets you have probably never seen, unless you have been in California. There they are extremely abundant: east of the Rocky Mountains they are not found. The females, and all the young birds until they are at least a year old, have much the look of several species of our brown sparrows. The English sparrow, which has become so very common in our cities and villages, gives you quite a good idea of their size and color. The male bird, however, when in full plumage, is very different. His head and shoulders and breast are richly marked with crimson of a purplish hue, giving him a lively and elegant look, decidedly different from his plainly dressed wife and children. He is a fine singer, and it is not an unusual thing to see him in a cage, and hear him called a California canary.

The linnets in California are not migratory; they remain through the winter as well as the summer. The barn-swallows, on the contrary, are migratory, just as they are here, for, unlike the linnets, they inhabit the whole breadth of the continent. In the fall they go south, as far as Mexico and Central America, and return in the spring all along the Pacific coast of the United States.

Thus our pair of linnets had had time to begin their housekeeping before the swallows arrived from the south. As I said, the swallows appeared to hold a consultation, and then very deliberately began the fight. The attack was resisted as stoutly as it was made, and for the whole of the first day no material advantage was gained by either party. There was a great amount of violent chattering, and many severe blows struck, causing some loss of feathers; but the linnets held their ground, or rather their nest, and when night came, the swallows retired, leaving them in possession.

Early the next morning the contest was renewed, and all through the forenoon it raged fiercely, with short intervals for rest, but noon had come without any apparent results. A little after noon the swallows suddenly, as if by agreement, flew away to the roof of an adjacent building, as though acknowledging a defeat, and the linnets were left once more in peace. They testified their enjoyment of the release by a constant happy twittering; but this was not to last. After about half an hour, the swallows, having sat without stirring all this time on the one spot where they alighted, sprang together from the roof, and darted like an arrow straight at the nest. The linnets were apparently taken by surprise, and in less than two minutes they were driven out of the nest, down upon the floor of the veranda, then upon the ground outside, and finally, with a loss of many feathers, entirely away from the house, and the swallows, with every demonstration of joy, took possession of the nest.

Their conversation seemed to be very earnest, and at the same time very cheerful, for they doubtless thought the victory was won. But what were the linnets doing all this time? At first, for a few minutes, they were apparently quite downcast. They hopped about restlessly and uneasily on the bush to which they had fled, and were entirely still. After a little while they evidently began to confer with one another, and it was plain that the female was more energetic than the male, and was urging him to do something which he disliked. But as might have been expected, she carried her point. Mrs. Mack was watching them, when the conversation came to an end.

They sat perfectly quiet for a few minutes, and then, with a dash as savage as that of their adversaries had been before, they charged full upon the nest, and, to their credit be it said, they won the victory. The swallows were routed, without having time for scarcely a blow in their own defense. They fled for their lives, and were chased off, not only from the veranda and the house, but even from the neighborhood, and the linnets returned in such a frame of mind that they continued the celebration of their triumph for the remainder of the day, the male maintaining a steady song until evening.