278 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



known in this part of the country, but it is now one of our common summer 

 visitants." Nuttall ' says that it was first observed at Henderson on the banks 

 of the Ohio, in 1S1 5, and at Whitehall, N. Y., in i8i7;thatin 18 18, it first came 

 to the White Mountains, and, in 1830, to Winthrop, Maine. It is an abundant 

 bird in parts of Ipswich, and I have also seen it at Topsfield. Mr. J. A. Farley 

 says it breeds at Saugus and Lynnfield. 



It is very interesting to see these birds gathering soft mud for their nests, 

 alighting on the edge of a pond, often four or five together, with their heads 

 pointed towards each other. Each raises its wings and flutters as if to prevent 

 itself from sinking into the mud. The mud is taken in the bill and the nest is 

 shaped by the bird's breast. Although the nests are built under the eaves on 

 the south side of barns, storms occasionally come up from the south and wash 

 them down during the breeding season, and they always disappear during the 

 winter, at least from the barns at Ipswich. On June 7th, 1903, I counted 58 of 

 the retort-like clay nests under the southern eaves of a barn near the sea at Ips- 

 wich. A storm with much rain came up from the southeast on June 12th, and on 

 June 14th, examination of the barn showed that every nest had been washed down ; 

 not one remained. On the ground I found numerous broken eggs and 55 dead 

 young birds, and this notwithstanding the inroads of rats and poultry. Even then, 

 although the storm continued, the birds were beginning to rebuild, as the wind 

 had shifted to the northeast. On June 17th there were eighteen nests three 

 quarters built ; on June 21st twenty nests, all but four or five completed, and on 

 July 5th twenty-three nests, all but three completed. 



The result of this disastrous storm was shown in the slightly lessened num- 

 bers in 1904, when 47 nests were built on this barn. Again a catastrophe 

 occurred, not as serious, however, because it was so late in the season. On 

 July 23d, 1904, came an easterly storm that whistled around under the southern 

 eaves and dislodged all but eight nests. Even at this late date there were young, 

 which were found dead on the ground. 



I have endeavored to attract the Eave Swallows to my own barn about half 

 a mile away, by putting up under the southern eaves, artificial retort-like nests 

 of wire netting covered with plaster bandage. Although the birds have 

 inspected these shams for two springs, they decline to occupy them or to 

 build near them. 



1 Thomas Nuttall : A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada, vol. l, p. 

 604, 1832. 



