HIRUNDINID^ — THE SWALLOWS. 341 



ally increased al)out farms near the coast. In the wild districts they build 

 in the caves that abound in the bluffs along the sea-shore from San Domingo 

 to Columbia Piiver. Dr. Suckley found them also moderately abundant 

 al)Out the basaltic clifts, near Fort Dalles, Oregon. They are much more 

 abundant about the coast than fartlier inland. 



Mr. Ridgway found this Swallow a very common species in all the rocky 

 li)calities in the vicinity of water, but not so numerous as the hmifrons. 



In May it was particularly numerous in the neighborhood of Pyramid 

 Lake, where its nests were built among the " tuia domes," attached to the 

 loofs of tlie caves. It was seldom that more than one or two pairs were 

 found together. 



In July he found a nest that contained young, in a cave among the lime- 

 stone cliffs of tlie canons of the East Humboldt Mountains, at an altitude 

 of about eight thousand feet. Many of their nests were found in May, in 

 the caves of the tufa rocks, on the shores of Pyramid Lake, as well as on 

 the islands in the lake. 



Mr. Hepburn writes that he found this Swallow widely diffused along the 

 Pacific coast, as far to the north as Sitka. In California he found it very 

 local, common near tlie coast, rare inland. Its earliest appearance is March 

 26, the great bulk leave in August, and the last stragglers are gone before 

 the last of September. They breed in caves and crevices of rocks, and also 

 under the sides of the wooden l:)ridges that sjmn the gullies at San Francisco. 

 Two broods are hatched in a year. The earliest egg was found on the 30th 

 of April, but they are usually a fortnight later. The second laying is about 

 the first of July, and no eggs were found later than the 4th of August. It 

 is at all times quite common to find nests with fresh eggs close to others 

 with half-grown young. 



Mr. J. K. Lord publishes an interesting account of a visit made by a soli- 

 tary pair of Barn Swallows to his party when encamped at Schyakwateen, 

 in British Columbia. A small shanty, loosely built of poles, and tightly 

 roofed, was in constant use as a blacksmith's shop. Early one summer 

 morning late in June, a, pair of Swallows perched on the roof of this shed, 

 without exhibiting the slightest fear of the noise made by the bellows or the 

 showers of sparks that flew all around. Presently they entered the house 

 and carefully examined the roof and its supporting poles, twittering to each 

 other all the while in the most excited manner. At length the important 

 cpiestion appeared to be settled, and the following day they commenced 

 Ijuilding on one of the poles immediately over the anvil. Though the ham- 

 mer was constantly passing close to their structure, these birds kept steadily 

 at their work. In about three days the rough outline of the nest had been 

 constructed. Curious to see from whence they procured their materials, Mr, 

 Lord tracked them to the stream where, on its edge, they worked up the 

 clay and fine sand into a kind of mortar with their beaks. They worked 

 incessantly, and in a few days their nest was finished, the mud walls having 



