The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-09-09
--+s~=------------= TENANTS OF AN OLD BARN.

large toad which lives under my barn, but he is only one of the many ten ants of that weatherbeaten structure. Upwards of dozen different kinds of animals, furred or feathered, call that old barn home" and seldom 1t is that a day passes without my seeing one or more of them.
 To begin at the top. there are, just under the roof, number of barn swal- lows, nests, literally plastered to the woodwork, From the barn floor they look somewhat like hayes of inverted cones made roughly of brown mud, but if one chambers up the piles of hay, and crawls over the beame to the nests themselves, it is seen that there is a hollow in the top of each, lined with soft and silky feathers, on which the thin shelled eggs are deposited. In the end ofvthe barn, at the top, there is little window, the glass panes of which have long since disappeared. In the winter it is boarded up to keep out the snow, but early in the spring l take down the boards, for feel that thous- ands of miles away, in South America, q dozen stout-hearted swallows are winging their way northward, with that barn as their destination. The mental picture of that old window frame it is. perhaps, which lends them the needed courage to press on through wind and rain storm, and they must never find it closed to them. Early in May they will be back as surely as the month itself, and in and out of the darkness of the barn, they will pass. like flames of purple light.
 No less lovable tenants are a pair of phoebes which every year build their messy, hair lined nest on beam in the wagon shed under the main floor of the barn. One of them. at least, is nearly always in sight, sitting on the wire fence which surrounds the buffalo pasture, wagging its tail up and down, turning it's head from side to side, and making frequent darts into the air for insects, which it gathers up with a snap of it's bill for each. Often particularly in the early mornings, 1t comes over to the house, and takes it's stand on the piazza railing, just out side my bedroom window. From this vantage point it launches itself about every. half minute, to gather in a fly which has settled on the outside of the window screen or on the ceiling of the piazza. Even when my eyes are closed a f1utter of wings and a sharp snap of quickly-closed mandibles, tells me that Phoebe has begun her days work.
 Far up near under the roof lives a little brown bat, and in the daytime he may often be seen hanging by his hind feet, head downwards, his folded wings giving him the appearance of being suspended in bag. About the time the phoebe retires, he takes up the work of destroying insects. which he follows in their cratic flight, on fast
 moving and almost silent wings. He, too, comes to the piazza, and swops re- peatedly at the window screens, where he catches the moths and other insects attracted by thc light of the lamps. The other night he found a window screen raised, and same into the house. He went silently from room to room and through the halls, possibly looking for 8 hole to escape by. When he flew
 into my bedroom, I closed the door, put on pair of gloves and tried to catch him. But he was wonderfully agile on the wing, turning and lodging with exquisite precision. Sometimes he would circle the room close to the ceil- ing, and then dart downward, passing between the bed and the floor without touching either. Presently he flew in- to a closet, and I entered quickly and shut the door. Then I opened the door about half an inch, that he might see the light, and when he tried to reach It I caught him in my gloved hand and carried him to the lamp. He was greatly frightened, and, while he strug- gled to free himself he continually ut tere his feeble rattling cry, at the same time opening his homely little mouth. and biting viciously at my gloves with his needle like teeth. I found large insect parasite feeding on the back of his car, and, after removing this, I carried him out and let him go.
 It would be difficult to tell how many mice there are in that old barn but there are at least three kinds. Now and then I see an ordinary gray house mouse, but more often a beautiful deer mouse, with his yellowish-b coat and white under-parts. Sometimes he will be running along, beam above me, and, as I pass beneath, he will come and deliberately peer down over the edge, to get better look at me. Occasionally. when he is nervous, per- haps, he will raise one delicate white fore paw, and, gathering the toes to- gether, drum rapidly on the resonant wood with buzzing sound A moment later, this signal, if signal it is will be answered by another mouse at some distance and out of my sight. Some times it will repeated by a third, or perhaps by the first mouse again.