EUROPEAN SWALLOW 459 



taken in continental North America. It is now regarded as only 

 subspecifically distinct from our common barn swallow. Our bird 

 is smaller than the European bird and more intensely colored on the 

 under parts; and the European bird has a broad band of glossy 

 blue-black across the chest, while in our bird this band is completely 

 interrupted or only faintly connected. 



It seems to fill the same place in European bird life as our beloved 

 barn swallow does in America, for Yarrell (187G-82) writes: '"The 

 swallow,' says Davy in his 'Salmonia,' 'is one of my favourite birds, 

 and a rival of the nightingale; for he cheers my sense of seeing as 

 much as the other does my sense of liearing. He is the glad prophet 

 of the year — the harbinger of the best season; he lives a life of enjoy- 

 ment amongst the loveliest forms of nature; winter is unknown to 

 him; and he leaves the green meadows of England in autumn, for the 

 myrtle and orange groves of Italy, and for the palms of Africa.' " 

 Like our barn swallow, which it closely resembles in all its habits, 

 the European bird favors the open rural districts, where it is asso- 

 ciated with scattered farm buildings and domestic animals, rather 

 than the more thickly settled towns and villages. About the farms 

 it finds suitable nesting sites in the buildings occupied by the animals 

 and an abundant food supply in the numerous insects attracted to 

 such places. The companionship and protection oifered by sympa- 

 thetic human friends may also be a factor. Capt. A. W. Boyd (1935) 

 says that "downland, heathland and moorland support very few 

 pairs, just as they include few buildings; the highest altitude at which 

 breeding pairs in the areas under observation have been found is 

 900 feet. In industrial and urban districts their density is low." 

 Spring. — Although there are a number of earlier dates recorded, 

 the average time for the arrival of the main body of the swallows in 

 England seems to be around the first week in April; they continue 

 to arrive, however, all through that month merging with the coming 

 of the passage migrants at the end of April, which migration lasts 

 all through May and even into June, according to Witherby (1920). 

 Nesting. — Capt. Boyd (1935) says: "It has been found that the 

 nesting sites of the great majority of Swallows are associated with 

 domestic animals, of which cows are first favourites; pigs are very 

 attractive and horses also, though recent reductions in the number 

 of stables occupied by horses have made them of less importance 

 to the bird; hen-houses are often occupied, but the number of pairs 

 nesting in dwelling-houses is comparatively small." Dr. A. G. Butler 

 (1896) writes: 



It places its nest in various situations — on joists of barns, out-houses, 

 boat-houses, in which case tlie form of the nest varies from an oval to a half- 

 or quarter-cup ; against perpendicular walls under eaves of barns ; inside chim- 

 neys, wells, and mines; in corners of pillared porticoes to large houses; under 



