SWALLOWS 459 



the shore of a river, stream, pond or lake in a large majority 

 of cases. While a majority prefer such localities which were 

 probably their natural homes, others have broken away from 

 what seems to have been the ancient habitat. As a result the 

 species nests in holes in trees in orchards, in hollow fence rails 

 and stumps by the roadside and along field lines, in crevices 

 in barns, bridges and buildings and in cigar boxes, tin cans, or 

 other more elaborate bird houses put up for them by kindly 

 disposed human beings. I once found a nest in the tank of 

 an old disused locomotive. 



Both sexes aid in nest building. I have often, when a pair 

 were skimming about over the water near to their selected 

 nesting site, provided myself with a quantity of white feathers 

 and tossed these one by one to the breeze. These were quickly 

 pursued and grabbed by one or both birds, even six or seven 

 being taken one after another by the same individual until it 

 had so many in its beak that it repeatedly lost some in the 

 effort to get more. Finally the load so gathered would be 

 taken to the nest. Even when they had fair sized young in 

 the nest I have found them unable to resist the temptation to 

 add more material of this sort to it. 



The nest is composed of a little grass or straw, generally 

 very warmly lined with feathers of various colors, but white 

 feathers predominate and the birds seem unable to resist the 

 attraction offered by downy white feathers. The male does his 

 share of incubating and feeding the young and also often feeds 

 the female while she is on the nest. Incubation requires about 

 fourteen days and the young leave in about sixteen days after 

 they are hatched. There seems to be partial evidence tending 

 to show that a second brood may be reared but I am rather 

 inclined to think that sets of eggs found in July are not 

 second broods in the true sense of the word, but rather cases 

 where for some reason they had not reared a brood previously 

 and were keeping up an effort to do so. I know that when 

 robbed the birds will nest again and repeatedly until successful 



