128 



BARN SWALLOW. 



613. Hirundo erythrogastra. IV2 inches. 



Female duller pluinaged and with a less deeply forked 

 tail than the male. Forehead and throat chestnut and 

 entire under parts buffy; tail deeply forked and with 

 a white spot on the inner web of each feather except the 

 central pair. 



This is the most graceful and beautiful of all our 

 swallows, and is the most common about farm houses, 

 the inside beams and rafters of which they appropriate 

 for their own use. They delight in skimming over the 

 rolling meadows or the surface of ponds, now rising 

 with the wind, now swooping downward with the speed 

 of an arrow. 



Song. — A continuous, rapid twitter. 



Nest. — A bowl -shaped structure made up of pellets 

 of mud cemented together with the birds' saliva, and 

 lined with feathers; attached to rafters in barns, the 

 opening being at the top and not at "bhe side as in the 

 last ; eggs exactly like those of the last. 



Range. — N. A., breeding north to the limit of trees; 

 winters in northern South America. 



