Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-09
TENANTS OF OLD BARN
MORE THAN A DOZEN DIFFERENT
ANIMALS INHABIT 1T.
Some of the Inhabitants of the Old
Structure Are Furred and Others
Are Feathered.



toad which lives under my barn. but he is
only one of the many tenants of that
| weatherbeaten structure. Upwards Of q
| dozen different kinds of animals, furred or
| feathered. call that old barn home" and
seldom it Is that a day passes without my
seeing one or more of them.
To begin at the top, there are, just under
| the roof, a number of barn swallows nests,
| literally plastered to the woodwork. From
| the barn floor they look somewhat like
| halves Of inverted cones made roughly of
! brown mud. but if one chambers up the
piles of hay and crawls over the beams 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
| SEelleG eggs are deposited.
| In the end of the barn, at the top, there
| is d little window, the glass panes of which
| have long since disappeared. In the winter
| 1t is boarded up to keep out the snow, but
very early in the spring L take down the
! boards, for | feel that thousands of miles
| away in South America a dozen heart
| ed swallows are winging their way north
! ward, with the barn 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.
A Pair of Phoebes.
Nc less lovable tenants are pair of
phoebes which every year build their messy,
| hair-lined nest on a 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, wagg!ng It's tail up and
down, turning It's head from side to side,
J -ir0tr ant do tnt q a
insects, which it gathers up with a snap
of it's bill for each,
Often, particularly in the early mornings,
It comes over to the house and takes its
stand on the piazza railing, just outside
my bed room window. From this vantage
point it launches itself about every half
minute to gather in fly which has set
tied the outside of the window screen
or on the ceiling of the piazza. Even when
my eyes are closed a futter of wings and
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 downward, his folded wings giving
him the appearance of being suspended in
a bag. About the time the phoebe retires
he takes up the work Of destroying insects,
which he follows in their erratic flight, on
fast-moving and almost silent wings.
He, too comes to the piazza. and swoops
| repeatedly at the window screens, where
| he catches the moths and other insects at
| tracted by the light of the lamps. The
| other night he found a window screen rails
ed and came into the house. He went 81
| lently from room to room and through the
| halls, possibly looking for hole to escape
| by. When he flew into my bedroom L
| closed the door. put on a pair of gloves
| and tried to catch him. But he was Won
| derfully agile on the wing, turning and
| lodging with exquisite precision.
Catching the Bat
| Sometimes he would circle the room close
| to the ceiling, and then dart downward,
! passing between the bed and the floor with
| out touching either. Presently he flew into
closet, and ! entered quickly and shut
the door. Then l opened the door about
| half an inch, that he might see the light,
and when he tried to reach 1t l caught him
in my glOved hand and carried him to the
lamp. He was greatly frightened, and,
while he struggled 10 free himself, he con-
tinually uttered his feeble rafting cry, at
the same time opening his home!y little
mouth and biting viciOusly at my gloves
with his poodle-like teeth | found a large
insect parasite feeding the back OF his
ear, and, after removing this l carried him
out and let him go.
1t would be difficult to tell how many
mice there are In that old barn. but there
are at least three kinds. Now and then l
see an ordinary gray house mouse, but
more often a beautiful deer mouse, with his
yellowish- brown coat and white under
parts Sometimes he will be running along
| a beam above me, and, as l pass beneath.
he will come and deliberately peer down
| over the edge, TO get a better look at me.
| Occasionally, when he Is nervous, perhaps,
| he will raise one delicate white forepaw,
| and, gathering the toes together. drum rap
| Idly on the resonant wood with a buZZing
| sound. A moment later, this signal. if sig
| nal it is, will be answered by another
| mouse at some distance and out of my
| sight. Sometimes it will be repeated by a
hird hV he fire In
Fat Meadow Mice.
| But much more numerous are the fat
| bodied meadow mice, which steal in through
| every crack to take their share of mixed
feed or mlddings. Gentle little creatures
| they are and quite unafraid frequently
running over my feet and sometimes allow
! ing me to pick them up in my hand with
| out attempting to bite. Most of them make
| their nests of dried grass in the meadows,
| but this week | found a nest right on the
! barn floor. 1t was the most interesting OF
| it's kind / ever saw, from the fact that 1t
| was not made of the usual materials, but
| of cotton wool, buffalo hair, string straw,
| feathers and rags. l left 1t just where it
| was, and this morning when l poked in a
| finger through the little round hole in the
| side there We're newly born mice In it.
! More formidable looking tenants are the
| rats but they are not the common brown
| or Norway rats, but black ones, the origi-
| nal native rats of this country They are
| probably less courageous than their brown
| cousins, who have driven them out of most
| places where formerly they were common,
| but at least they are much pleasanter to
! look at, not only by reason of their pleas
! ing blue-black color, but because of their
more graceful form and movements.
Lack of space will not permit me to tell
| of the Old griZZled woodchuck who has his
burrow beneath the foundations of the barn,
| or of the cotton tail rabbit which comes
| hopping out every evening to nibble at my
| M lie
| munk, too but he much resembles other
| chipmunks, and even he is sitting in the
| sunny doorway of the barn, busily filling
| his cheek pouches with the seeds of sum-
| mer apples. which he has been stealing from
| the orchard across the Road.
ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES.