BARN SWALLOW 451 



"All the vegetable matter found was contained in six stomachs, 

 but it was real food in only four. One of these revealed seeds of 

 the elderberry {Samhiicus) and of Comus sericea. Vegetable food 

 in this stomach made up 75 percent of the contents. The second 

 stomach held a single kernel of buckwheat, the third a root or bulb, 

 and the fourth two seeds of Croton fexensis.^^ 



Swallows probably spend more time in the air than any other 

 group of passerine birds, not excepting the flycatchers; consequently 

 nearly all their food is captured while they are on the wing. They 

 catch more flies than the flycatchers because, in their swift and 

 tireless flight, they cover much more open country, over fields, 

 meadows, marshes, and ponds, whereas the flycatchers are limited to 

 such insects as happen to fly near their perches. 



Barn swallows follow the farmer while he is plowing to catch 

 such insects as he stirs up and even alight on the ground to pick up 

 others. They may often be seen coursing back and forth among 

 moving cattle or sheep, gleaning the insects that these animals 

 disturb. Anyone who has walked through a field of waving grass 

 has noted how the swallows follow him, catching insects in the air 

 or picking them deftly from the grass tops. Mr. Forbush (1907) 

 says: "It is particularly serviceable about grass fields. The moths 

 of the smaller cutworms, those of Arctians and Crambids, are among 

 the injurious insects that it gleans when flying low over the grass. 

 * * * Codling moths, cankerworm moths, and Tortricid or leaf- 

 rolling moths are gathered from the orchard." Thus in many ways 

 these swallows are most useful to the farmers. 



Dr. Dickey (MS.) says: "There are known instances of vege- 

 tation having been saved on farms where barn swallows had breeding 

 colonies, while neighboring farms, without swallows, were about 

 denuded of plant life," in West Virginia, during a recent drought. 



Behavior. — What is more graceful or more pleasing to watch than 

 the flight of the barn swallow? The flight of the albatross, as it 

 mounts from the trough between, seas over the crest of a wave, is 

 eflfortless, powerful, majestic; the soaring flight of the eagle and the 

 spirited dash of the falcon are inspiring; and the swallow-tailed kite 

 charms the observer with its grace. Few of us are privileged to 

 see these masters of the air except on rare occasions, but, if we could 

 only learn to appreciate our familiar little friend of the barnyard. 

 we would see that his powers of flight compare favorably with the 

 best of them. His flight is fully as graceful as that of the kite, 

 which after all is only a glorified swallow; it is as swift for his 

 own purposes as that of the falcon; and, in dashing through the 

 narrow openings to his nesting places, he shows as much control 

 of his wings as does the albatross in skimming the waves. His poise 

 ^nd grace op. the wing are unsurpassed. 



