OUR PRICELESS SWALLOWS 



original preference was for rocky caves as a nesting site. 

 Just once in my life have I found a nest thus situated. 

 It was in a cave on lonely Seal Island, w^hich lies twenty 

 miles off the rugged coast of Maine, in Penobscot Bay. 



Our Barn Swallow is such a happy, friendly bird that 

 nearly everyone who knovvs it loves and admires it. 

 We enjoy its merry tw^itterings as it darts about the 

 barn, and are pleased at the grace with which this 

 greyhound of the air doubles and turns. When we go 

 out for a drive, it is a pretty sight to see them circle 

 about us, catching the insects which our advance starts 

 from the grass or weeds along the country roadside. 



Perhaps next in familiarity comes the Eave or Cliff 

 Sw^allow. This is the other kind which frequents the 

 barns. I': builds bottle-shaped nests of mud pellets 

 up under the eaves, whicii are often clustered thickly 

 together and partly built. one upon the side of the other. 

 In the primitive days these colonies of nests w^ere built 

 on cliffs, and in some parts of the West they are built 

 there even yet. So the bird is the genuine Cliff Swallow 

 out there, and the Eave Sw^allow with us. Originally 

 there were no Cliff Swallow^s where there were no cliffs, 

 but with the country's settlement they spread nearly 

 everywhere, and the dates are on record when they 

 first appeared in various localities. This bird looks 

 quite different from the Barn Swallow, and can be told 

 by its nearly square tail, the pale reddish patch at the 

 base of the bill and on the upper rump, and the light 

 under-parts. 



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