140 BANK SWALLOW. 



cess of wet, and act as a safeguard against the de- 

 predations of birds of prey, a highly necessary 

 precaution ; the nest, placed 011 a bare surface of 

 rock, unsheltered by even a leaf, is visible to every 

 passing plunderer ; and further, its form shades 

 the sitting bird from the intense heat of the sun. 



Frequently fifteen or twenty nests are piled 

 on one another, their long- tubular mud entrances 

 sticking out in all directions. It is a pretty 

 sight in a houseless country to watch these fea- 

 thered masons, always suggestive of home, and 

 the familiar martin, that builds its mud-nurseries 

 under the eaves of our residences, recalling sad 

 though pleasant memories of friends far away, 

 perhaps, like I am, watching the mason-birds. 



After nesting-time they abandon the rock with 

 their families, and scatter over the prairies, reas- 

 sembling, prior to their final start for the south, 

 in September; the nesting-time is in June, five 

 eggs being usually the number laid. 



BANK SWALLOW (Cotyle riparia, Boir). 

 These arrive at Colville in May and June, but 

 somewhat earlier along the coast and at Van- 

 couver Island. They are widely distributed, and 

 generally frequent the larger river-banks. On 

 their first arrival they assemble in immense num- 

 bers, sometimes so completely covering a dead 



