416 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



22 nests located on the banks of the Androscogin River, Brunswick, 

 Maine, nine were destroyed, presumably by a mink or a weasel. 



At a large colony of bank swallows near Topsham, Maine, where 

 many of the nesting holes were near the edge of the turf at the top 

 of a gravel pit, I saw a cat several times during June 1924 attempting 

 to capture the swallows as they darted near her or attempted to enter 

 the nesting burrows. No captures were noted, but the cat's frequent 

 presence there indicated that she had been successful. Certainly 

 young leaving their nests prematurely would be subject to capture 

 by cats visiting a colony at such times. 



Laurence B. Potter (1924) on July 20, 1924, found many nests 

 destroyed by a badger in a colony located on Frenchman River, East- 

 end, Saskatchewan, Canada. The badger dug down from above until 

 within reach of the nestling swallows. 



Dayton Stonei' (1938) writes that adult bank swallows were killed 

 and partially devoured in their nesting burrows by house rats {Rattus 

 norvegicibs) . Stoner (1936b) found a deer mouse {Peromyscus 

 lev/cofus noveboracensis) in a bank swallow's nest that had a deep 

 feather lining. There was no evidence that the mouse had destroyed 

 eggs or young. He also records finding a garter snake, a northern 

 flicker, a prairie harvest mouse, and various insects in the nesting 

 burrows of bank swallows. 



Predatory birds probably are not so serious enemies of the active 

 fast-flying swallows as of more sluggish species, but some meet an 

 untimely death in this manner, P. L. Errington (1932) reports a 

 bank swallow being eaten by a barred owl {Strix varia), and Stoner 

 (!l938) states that the crow is responsible for the destruction of a 

 few bank swallows. 



In the past perhaps more than in recent years thoughtless boys 

 have been guilty of excavating numbers of bank swallows' nests. 



The automobile is one of the modem enemies of the bank swallow. 

 In Maine where colonies are located in sand pits near the highways 

 I have frequently seen bank swallows that had been killed by the 

 fast-moving cars. O. A. Stevens (1932) writes that on July 23, 1931, 

 he found 10 or 12 dead bank swallows on a graveled road about a 

 small lake 25 miles east of Fargo, N. Dak. He also cites a report of 

 W. E. Brentzel, who saw three places in a roadway near Pelican 

 Rapids, Minn., that were black with dead swallows, estimated at a 

 total of 1,000. Such losses when frequent are more disastrous than 

 predatory animals and birds. 



In places where the bank swallows dig their nesting holes in 

 the sides of gravel pits entire colonies may be destroyed by slides 

 caused when the gravel is removed for road building or other pur- 

 poses. A colony of about 20 nests located on the banks of the An- 



