544 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



Adult male: Glossy blue-black or steel blue above and IjoIow; wings black, witli less 

 blue gloss; bill and feet plain black; iris brown. Adult female: Similar, but the glossy 

 blue-black above not so brilliant or continuous; usually a distinct grayish collar on the 

 hind-neck; under parts grayish or grayish white, darker (almost dusky) on throat, chest 

 and sides, lighter on belly and under tail-coverts, where many feathers have narrow dusky 

 shaft-lines; wings brownish-black; bill and feet as in male. The fully adult plumage is 

 not acquired until the second or tliird year, and many males are found breeding while in 

 a plumage very much like that of the adult female, but usually with scattering patches 

 of blue-black feathers. 



Length 7.25 to 8.50 inches; wing 5.G5 to G.20; tail 3 to 3.40. 



246. Clif¥ Swallow. Petrochelidon lunifrons lunifrons (Say). (612) 



Synonyms: Eave Swallow, Jug Swallow, Barn Swallow, Mud Swallow. — Hirundo 

 lunifrons, Say, 1823. — Hirundo fulva, Bonap., Aud., Nutt. — Petrochelidon Imiifrons of 

 most autiiors. 



Recognizable at a glance by the white or cream colored crescent on the 

 forehead (whence the specific name Imiifrons) and the cinnamon rump, 

 the latter a conspicuous mark when flying. Sexes alike. The tail slightly 

 emarginate, almost square. 



Distribution. — North America, north to the limit of trees, breeding south 

 to the valleys of the Potomac and the Ohio, southern Texas, southern 

 Arizona, and California; Central and South America in winter. 



This beautiful swallow, although not as well known as the true Barn 

 Swallow, is yet generally distributed throughout the state and nests abund- 

 antly wherever suitable conditions obtain. In some cases it is known as 

 the Barn Swallow, being more abundant than the true Barn Swallow, 

 and placing its globe-shaped or flask-shaped nests in a long row under 

 the eaves on the outside of the barn. Formerly the bird is known 

 to have placed its nest on rocky cliffs and in certain parts of the 

 west it still does so commonly, and we have one record of such nest- 

 ing for Michigan. Max M. Peet thus describes a nesting colony on 

 Isle Roy ale: "The Cliff Swallow was only found at one place on the 

 island, at Scovill Point, on July 19, 1905, where a number of nests were 

 found placed on the bare face of the rocks. They were above the reach 

 of the waves and were usually protected above by shelving of rock. The 

 nests were composed of mucl and lined with feathers but could not be 

 examined closely. Probably they contained young, as the old birds con- 

 tinually flew to the nests and then away again, chattering all the time" 

 (Adams' Rep., Mich. Geol. Surv., 1908, 369). According to Kumlien and 

 Hollister "in 1845 it was nesting abundantly on the cliffs of Devil's Lake 

 [Wis.], and twenty years ago was still breeding there in less numbers, and 

 more about farm houses than on the cliffs. At the present day it has 

 almost entirely deserted the cliffs in Wisconsin, and has gradually spread 

 over all the unsettled parts of the State." In 1877 Professor Aughey 

 counted 2,100 nests of this bird on the sides of a perpendicular chalk rock 

 on the bank of the ]\Iissouri river near Niobrara, Nebraska. 



About the larger cities and towns in Michigan the English SparroAv has 

 been a potent factor in reducing the numbers of Cliff Swallows. The 

 mud nests of swallows form convenient receptacles for the eggs of Sparrows 

 and they often take possession of the nests and drive the swallows away 

 entirely. In some cases a colony of Cliff Swallows will return year after 

 year to the same nesting place in undiminished numbers, but more often 

 they disappear after a few years and then after an absence of several years 



