342 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



finally been \varnily lined witli soft dry grasses and tlie feathers and do\vn 

 of ducks and geese. Tliis trustful pair seemed to know no iear. Tlie 

 narrator often stood on a log to watch them, with his face so near that 

 their feathers frequently brushed against it as they toiled at their work. 

 Soon the nest was completed. Five eggs were laid, which were never left 

 once uncovered until they were hatched, the female sitting the gi-eater part 

 of the time. They were fed with great assiduity Viy tlie parents, and grew 

 rapidly. In leaving the nest, two of the young birds fell to the ground, but 

 were picked up by the blacksmith, and placed with the others on their 

 roosting-jjlace. A few days' training taught them the use of their wings, 

 and they soon after took their departure. 



Professor Reinhardt records its occurrence in Greenland, at Fiskensesset 

 and at Nenontalik. 



The natural breeding-places of these birds, before the settlement of the 

 country, were caves, overhanging rocky cliffs, and similar localities. Swal- 

 low Cave, at Nahant, wiis once a favorite ])lace of resort, and in the unsettled 

 portions of the country they are only iound in such situations. As the 

 country is settled they forsake these places for tlie buildings of the farm, 

 and their numbers rapidly increase. In the fur countries and in all the 

 Pacific coast, they still breed in and iidialjit caves, chieliy among limestone 

 rocks. 



Where tlie opportunity offers, they prefer to place their nests on tlie hori- 

 zontal rafters of barns. Built in this situation, the nests have an average 

 height and a breadth of about five inches. The cavity is two inches deep 

 and tliree inches wide, at the rim. The nests are constructed of distinct 

 layers of mud, from ten to twelve in number, and each separated by strata 

 of fine dry grasses. These layers are each made up of small pellets of mud, 

 that have lieen worked over l>y the birds and placed one by one in juxtapiosi- 

 tion until each layer is complete. These mud walls are an inch in thickness. 

 When they are completed, tliey are warmly stuffed with iiiie soft grasses 

 and lined with downy i'eathers. When liuilt against the side of a house, a 

 strong foundation of mud is first constructed, upon which the nest is erected. 

 In this case the nest is much more elongate in shape and more strongly 

 made. 



A striking peculiarity of tliese nests is frequently an extra platform, built 

 against, but distinct from the nest itself, designed as a roosting-place for 

 the parents, used by one during incubation at night or when not engaged in 

 procuring food, and liy botli when the young are large enough to occupy tlie 

 whole nest. One of these I found to be a separate structure from the nest, 

 but of similar materials, three inches in length and one and a half in breadth. 

 This nest had Ijeen for several years occupied by the same pair, though none 

 of their offspring ever returned to the same roof to breed in their turn. Yet 

 in some instances as many as fifty pairs have been known to occupy the 

 rafters of the same bam. 



