BARN SWALLOW 445 



open cigar box that was fastened for their use under the roof of the open-sided 

 passenger coach. In 1034 the nest was supported near the center and imme- 

 diately under the roof of the baggage van, the sides of which are protected 

 only by canvas curtains. I had occasion to cross the portage on the evening 

 of June 21. ^Tien we embarked at the eastern end the swallows were not 

 at home, but as soon as we arrived at the Tagish terminus both birds swooiied 

 into the car. There they settled down for the night, despite the fact that 

 baggage was being piled beneath them to within a few inches of the roof. 



Nesting year after year on a moving boat is another unusual habit, 

 yet Burton W. Gates (1903), who had previously noted it, writes: 



I recently wrote to Captain Harris, formerly of the steamer Horicon, on 

 Lake George, New York, inquiring if the Swallows which, in the summer of 

 1900, nested beneath the guard-rails of his steamer had, in the three succeeding 

 years, nested in similar places. His prompt reply was to the effect that "the 

 Swallows have built their nests under the guard-rails of the various steamers 

 which I have been running [I judge upon Lake George] for the past fifty-five 

 years." The Captain is now retired from duty, but inquired of his son, the 

 pilot of the new steamer Sagamore, regarding the habits of the birds in the past 

 two seasons. To this, the Captain further wrote: "My son says that the 

 Swallows were still with him this summer." Thus it would seem that the 

 Swallows of Caldwell, New York, have, for generations, had a nesting habit 

 peculiar to that locality. 



It is perhaps not strange that the barn swallow should occasionally 

 appropriate an old nest of the phoebe, as these birds often nest under 

 bridges, or that the swallow should sometimes nest in a well or an 

 abandoned mining tunnel, which somewhat resemble caves. Illustrat- 

 ing their confidence in humanity, Mr. Forbush (1929) mentions the 

 fallowing cases : "A pair built their nest close by a blacksmith's forge 

 and reared their young, regardless of wheezing bellows, clanging ham- 

 mers and showering sparks. Another pair in Falmouth, Massachu- 

 setts, built their nest in a room on a large farm, where agricultural 

 products were daily prepared for market. They threaded their way 

 in and out among the busy workers, industrious and fearless in their 

 care for their growing young. A pair in Westborough, Massachusetts, 

 took for their nesting-place a narrow shelf, in a barn, five feet above 

 the floor, almost over a cow, where the milker could look directly 

 into the nest. They stayed there and raised their young.*' 



In building their nests the barn swallows show themselves to be 

 expert masons, but unlike the cliff swallows and like the ancient 

 Egyptians they cannot make bricks without straw. The first requisite 

 is some clayey or otherwise sticky mud, which the birds obtain from the 

 shore of some body of water or from mud puddles in roads or fields. 

 Professor Herrick (1935), who has made a careful study of the nesting 

 habits of this swallow, feels confident that the bird's saliva is not a 

 factor in making the mud more adhesive. Authorities differ as to 

 how the mud is carried. Dr. Dickey (MS.) says that "they waddle 



