THE 00L0QI8T 



128 



row of willow trees which are grow- 

 ing beside the river at this place, vast 

 numbers of them; some assert more 

 than thirty thousand. There they per- 

 form various evolutions; curves, 

 spirals, countermarches, twists and 

 turns before retiring to roost. They 

 leave this roost each morning a little 

 before sunrise, arising in flocks or 

 companies at intervals of two or three 

 minutes. The Swallows remain at this 

 roost until the middle of September. 

 (Auk Vol. XII, p. 48) The Barn Swal- 

 low suffers to some extent from para- 

 sites. I have found the young with 

 large white maggots of some fly I 

 supposed partly imbedded in the ears, 

 nostrils and sides of the neck; when 

 thus attacked the young fast loose 

 strength and soon die. That insect- 

 eating birds are of immense value to 

 the farmer is well known and their 

 protection is now believed to be ab- 

 solutely necessary to the welfare of 

 agriculture. 



Furthermore, the health of the far- 

 mer aad his family may be protected 

 to a large extent by insect eating 

 birds The Barn Swallows' food con- 

 sists principally of insects which fly, 

 the common house-fly being a part of 

 its food That this fly often brings 

 disease germs into the house can but 

 be admitted. 



Wilson (American Ornithology, Vol. 

 II, pp 412) reports the Barn Swallow 

 as feeding on house-flies. Beal (De- 

 partment of Agriculture Bulletin No. 

 619) Food Habits of the Swallow, 

 says "Diptera (flies) are evidently the 

 choice food of the Barn Swallow; con- 

 sisting of about 39.49 per cent of its 

 food." It is known also that the Barn 

 Swallow eats the Cotton Boll Weevil, 

 Rice Weevil, Hessian Fly and other 

 destructive insects. Its food is taken 

 usually as it courses in swift flight 

 over our field' and the surface of the 



ponds and rivers, but one cold morn- 

 ing this spring I found the Barn 

 Swallow fluttering along just clearing 

 the ground, almost alighting at times. 

 Apparently the insects had been 

 driven into the grass by the damp 

 mist. How the Swallow delights in 

 one of our warm summer rains, as a 

 chance to take a bath; one may see 

 numbers of them on the telephone and 

 telegraph wires pruning and shaking 

 out their feathers. They also bathe by 

 dips into the surface of the water in 

 their flight over the river; they re- 

 lieve their thirst while in full flight 

 in the same manner. 



I have written of the Barn Swallow 

 building their nests in my barn, which 

 is the common habit of this bird in 

 New England They have also been 

 found to build in various other sites 

 especially in the unsettled portions of 

 the United States. Coues finds them 

 breeding in Dakota on the ground in 

 little holes in the perpendicular face 

 of a' cutbank. Dr. Cooper finds them 

 nesting in caves on the Pacific coast 

 as also does Ridgway in Nevada, 

 using the tufa-domes, a remarkable 

 rock formation about Pyramid Lake. 

 Brewer in 1870 writes of the rocks of 

 Newport and Nahant as the Barn 

 Swallows primitive breeding ground. 

 Howe, (Birds of Rhode Island, 1899) 

 states they continue to nest in the 

 crevices of the vertical walls of the 

 chasm called Purgatory. 



Most writers describe the eggs of 

 the Barn Swallow as white spotted 

 with cinnamon, or rufous brown; 

 occasionally lilac or lavender clouded 

 spots about the larger end. In 

 the fresh egg, unblown, the yolk gives 

 it a creamy tinge, caused by the thin- 

 ness of the shell. In a partly incu- 

 bated egg this creamy tinge is 

 changed to a purple shade caused by 

 the growth of the embryo. 



