84 BIRDS OF FIELD, FOREST AND PARK 



notes are limited to a happy chuckle, a sort of 

 family greeting, which I most often hear as the 

 parent bird arrives at the nest with food. They 

 also have a low call note of alarm, but are, on 

 the whole, the most silent of our Swallows. 

 They are scarcely six inches long, an inch 

 shorter than the Barn Swallow. 



Bank Swallow. The Bank Swallow also is 

 named for its nesting habits. This bird is an 

 engineer, a digger of tunnels, at the far end of 

 which is a secure location for its eggs and brood. 

 Along the sandy river banks and where excava- 

 tions have been made by man, this Swallow 

 digs with its tiny feet a tunnel three or four feet 

 long. At the end a chamber is excavated in 

 which a nest is loosely made of grass and coarse 

 straw, softened with feathers gathered from the 

 farmyard. The eggs are pure white. 



Sometimes when you are walking along the 

 edge of a bank you will hear a strange muffled 

 sound coming from beneath your feet, and with 

 a whir of wings, out will dart, from their dark 

 cells, the frightened birds to inquire into the 

 character of the disturbance. Whirling about, 

 they angrily chatter for some time, but, on your 

 departure, settle back to their home cares again. 



Their notes, which have been described as a 

 "giggling twitter," are less pleasing than those 

 of the other members of the family. As they 

 are decidedly gregarious, we see these Swallows, 

 too, in great flocks after the young are grown, 

 often in the company of Barn and Eave Swal- 

 lows. They also frequent the streams, gliding 

 about like their cousins in search of food. 



