CLIFF SWALLOW. 139 
I am quite sure these swallows dig a hole in the 
solid tree, a feat their soft beaks appear hardly 
fitted for, inasmuch as I saw one begun and 
finished at the Sumass prairie, where great 
numbers of swallows annually resort to build, 
finding there an abundance of the favourite soft 
willow- wood. 
Curr Swattow (Hirundo lunifrons, Say). 
—I never saw this bird on the west side of the 
Cascades, but it is very abundant between the 
Cascades and Rocky Mountains. Arrives at 
Colville in May and June, inimmense flocks. On 
arriving they at once fix on some steep rock with 
an exposed surface; days and days are spent in 
whirling round and round this intended building- 
site, chattering, and clearly having warm and 
angry debates, about the summer labour; they at 
last adjust all preliminary arrangements, then 
set to work in earnest. 
Cliff-swallows are the most sociable of birds, and 
work together in hundreds, side by side, on very 
amicable terms. The nests are made of mud; in 
shape like a retort, with long narrow neck like a 
chimney, which the birds creep through to reach 
the globular nest; this neck is artfully bent, to 
prevent the eggs or young from falling out. A 
form of nest clearly designed to prevent the ac- 
