1 128 Rural Schooi. Leaflet 



clilT, or eave, swallow likewise has a square tail, and while its under parts 

 are very much like those of the barn swallow, it can easily be distinguished 

 from it by a buff}^ patch on the rump. 



The bank and the rough -winged swallows nest in holes in sand banks or 

 in cliffs, but all the others may nest about the house. The purple martins 

 and the tree swallows will nest in bird boxes placed on exposed poles, 

 and the bam and the cliff swallows build their nests of mud about the 

 bam. The barn swallow's nest is cuplike with the opening at the top, 

 and is usually placed inside of the bam near the gable. The cliff, or 

 eave, swallow, on the other hand, usually builds on the outside beneath 

 the eaves. Its nest is gourd-shaped with the opening at the side. Both 



^^^•W. 



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^" 



Barn swallow 



species line their nests with feathers, and lay four or five white eggs spotted 

 with brown. 



The bam swallow spends the winter in South and Central America, 

 but returns to central New York somewhat after the middle of April, 

 and begins to nest about a month later. For nesting purposes, it prefers 

 the old-fashioned bam, whose doors always stand hospitably open, but 

 it can be enticed to the more modem structures if the ventilation holes 

 beneath the gable are made sufficiently large, and the beams within are 

 not too smooth to hold the nests. 



Swallows are valuable birds to have about the farm because they live 

 entirely on insects, and destroy great quantities of mosquitoes, moths, 

 flies, and other pests. There are cases on record of farms that have 

 been well protected by swallows from insect foes, while adjacent farms 

 that had no swallows, were entirely denuded. 



As early as July the swallows begin assembling in large flocks in prep- 

 aration for their fall migration, and during August and early September 



