THE AMERICAN BARN SWALLOW. — 
the Barn Swallow as nesting along the rocky walls of Hangman’s Creek, in 
just such situations as Cliff Swallows would choose; and back in 89, I found 
a few associated with Violet-greens along the Natchez Cliffs, in Yakima 
County. 
A colony of some twenty pairs may be found yearly nesting on Destruc- 
tion Island, in the Pacific Ocean. A few of them still occupy wave-worn 
crannies in the sand-rock, overlooking the upper reaches of the tide, but most 
of the colony have taken refugé under the broad gables of the keepers’ houses 
The nest of the Barn Swallow is quadrispherical, or bracket- shaped, with 
an open top; and it usually depends for its position upon the adhesiveness of 
the mud used in construction. Dr. Brewer says of them: “The nests are 
constructed of distinct layers of mud, from ten to twelve in number, and each 
separated by strata of fine dry grasses. These layers are each made up of 
a ee 
? 
Taken in Blaine. From a Photograph Copyright, 1908, by W. L. Dawson. 
THE NOONING. 
BARN SWALLOWS ON TELEGRAPH WIRES. 
small pellets of mud, that have been worked over by the birds and placed one 
by one in juxtaposition until each layer is complete.”” The mud walls thus 
composed are usually an inch in thickness, and the cavity left is first lined 
with fine soft grasses, then provided with abundant feathers, among which 
the speckled eggs lie buried and almost invisible. 
