BIRDS OF MINNESOTA 353 



the 15th of May. Its presence is easily noted, as the tail is ex- 

 tremely forked, and it seeks the inside of barns and other out- 

 houses to build its nest on the rafters and beams. Failing to 

 find its favorite place to build, it will accept a place under the 

 eaves like the Cliff Swallow, or not obtaining this, will go to 

 the woods, and there select a hollow stub or tree so widely 

 open that little else but the shell of the dry sappy part remains 

 and will occupy it with ten to twenty or more nests. This out 

 wardly, consists of mud brought in pellets and plastered to- 

 gether with the saliva of the bird, into which is mixed a desir- 

 able quantity of fine hay. When it has assumed the right pro 

 portions it is lined with fine grass, covered over which are loosely 

 disposed feathers. It lays from four to five white eggs bear- 

 ing a tint of fleshy roseate color, with fine dottings of two 

 shades of brown, and reddish purple. Three broods are reared 

 in a season oftentimes, but more frequently only two. In the 

 early autumn they gather into flocks of considerable size, 

 though not as large as in some other sections reported, and 

 after staying a few days about the unfrequented streams and 

 large marshes, disappear so suddenly that it is little wonder 

 that our not very remote ancestors were led to believe that 

 they hibernated in the marshes and swamps. In a country con 

 sisting of so much treeless territory, it would not be expected 

 to find the Barn Swallow universally distributed, but nowhere 

 has it failed to be found where conditions favoring its incubat- 

 ing habits have existed, or been subsequently developed . On 

 the broad plains of the Red river valley, where barns are still 

 the exceptions, I have found them in great numbers about a 

 single out-house oftentimes. 



In common with all of the social swallows, they are every- 

 where welcomed by the agriculturists, as their feeding habits 

 do not levy upon the productions of man. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Tail deeply forked; outer feathers several inches longer than 

 the inner; very narrow towards the end, above glossy blue, 

 with concealed white in the middle of the back; throat chest- 

 nut; rest of lower part reddish-white, not conspicuously differ 

 ent; a steel blue collar on the upper part of the breast, inter- 

 rupted in the middle; tail feathers with a white spot near the 

 middle on the inner web. 



Length, 6.90; wing, 5; tail, 4.50. 



Habitat, North America. 



