SWALLOWS 



91 



of the birds that invariably rent a bird house if 

 it is put lip about the garden or orchard. Or 

 better still, if a hole is cut in the side of a wood- 

 shed and a box put on the inside, it is almost 

 sure to be taken by a \'iolet-green Swallow. 

 William L. Finley. 



The food habits of the \'iolet-green Swallow 

 have no marked peculiarities and are practically 

 identical with those of its eastern relative, the 

 Barn Swallow. Almost all of its food is insects 

 and of these only 3 per cent, can be reckoned as 

 useful. 



A. 



BANK SWALLOW 

 Riparia riparia ( Liiunciis) 



O. U. Numlicr uif, .Si-f (dlur I'late 88 



Other Names. — Sand Swallow : Saml Martin : I'.ank 

 Martin. 



General Description. — Length, sJi inches. Upper 

 parts, grayish-brown ; under parts, white and grayish- 

 brown, liill, small, moderately depressed ; tail, about 

 yi length of wing, forked for about ! ,', of its length. 

 the side feathers moderately contracted near the tips 

 which are blunt. 



Color. — Adults: Above, plain grayish-brown; chin, 

 throat, cheek region, and under parts of body, with 

 under tail-coverts, white, interrupted by a broad band 

 of grayish-brown across dust, continued along sides 

 (where fading out on flanks), the center portion of 

 breast usually with concealed spots of grayish-brown; 

 iris, brown. Young: Similar to adults, but feathers of 

 rump, upper tail-coverts, and inner wing quills broadly 

 margined terminally with pale cinnamon-buff, pale 

 wood-brown, or whitish, the wing-coverts more nar- 

 rowly margined with the same; feathers of grayish- 

 brown chest-band usually tipped or margined terminally 

 with paler; chin and upper throat often speckled with 

 grayish-brown, and white of under parts sometimes 

 tinged with pale rusty or cinnamon. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : An excavation, made by 

 the birds, in a sand bank, from a foot and a half to 

 three feet in length, the extremity hollowed out to hold 



the nesting material of straw, grass, and feathers. 

 E(ii;s : Normally 5, pure white. 



Distribution, — Northern hemisphere ; in America 

 breeding from arctic districts southward to Georgia 

 (.St. Simon's Island), Louisiana, Texas, .Arizona, and 

 nortlicrn Mexico; in winter migrating southward 



■ R. I, Brjsh.T 

 BANK SWALLOW 



through Mexico. Central .-\merica, and South America, 

 as far as eastern Peru and Brazil, and to the West 

 Indies. 



There are but few species of American birds 

 that nest in holes in the ground which they 

 themselves e.xcavate. One is the Ivingfishers, 

 whose chief representative is the well-known 

 bird of the eastern United States, and another 

 is the little Bank Swallow. It seems logical that 

 birds which have s(.i queer a common habit, 

 should be in sympathy in other respects, and so 

 it happens quite naturally that the big and brave 

 and self-reliant fisherman in feathers and the 

 timid little insect-hunting Swallow often dig their 



bturows in the same bank and seem to be on very 

 good terms. 



" Iloncy-combed " is about the only adjective 

 which describes the appearance of a bank in 

 which a colonv of these Swallows have made 

 their homes. Thoreau recorded seeing fifty-nine 

 luink Swallows' holes within a space of twenty 

 by one and a half feet (in the middle), and 

 doubtless this could be exceeded. The bank may 

 be of either clay or sand (in fact there are two 

 or three records of the birds actually having 



