SWALLOWS 



461 



County Records. — Androscoggin; abundant summer resident, (Johnson) ; 

 Aroostook ; very local but scattered in colonies in various sections of the 

 county, (Knight). Cumberland; common summer resident, (Mead). Frank- 

 lin; common summer resident, (Swain). Hancock; common on many of 

 the islands and along the coast, also inland, (Knight) . Kennebec ; common 

 summer resident, (Gardiner Branch). Knox; summer, (Rackliff). Lincoln ; 

 breeds at Damariscotta, (Berry, Oologist, 1888, p. 175). Oxford; common 

 breeder, (Nash). Penobscot ; abundant local breeder, (Knight). Piscataquis ; 

 common, breeds, (Homer). Sagadahoc; common summer resident, (Spin- 

 ney). Somerset; common summer resident, (Morrell). Waldo; common 

 local summer resident, (Knight). Washington; very abundant summer 

 resident, (Boardman). York; common summer resident, (Adams). 



Near Bangor the species usually arrives about April nine- 

 teenth to the twenty-fifth, occasionally a little later and remains 

 until the last of August, the very latest date I have being 

 September first, though near Westbrook there is a recorded 

 date of September nineteenth, (J. M. O. S. 1906, p. 64). The 

 species congregates in large colonies, sometimes colonies of a 

 thousand or more nesting in the perpendicular face of a sand 

 bank, while at other times only a few pair are together, the 

 relative numbers in a colony depending on the suitable avail- 

 able nesting space, in some instances at least. Originally the 

 faces of sand banks along the shores of a river or stream and 

 along the seacoast were the chief available situations, but since 

 the advent of civilized man and the establishing of various 

 places for getting sand and gravel with the consequent produc- 

 tion of available perpendicular banks all over the country, the 

 birds may be found nesting wherever suitable sites occur, often 

 far from the water. 



To start a nest the bird alights and clings with its feet to 

 the face of the sand bank at a suitable spot and with its bill 

 works away at the sand until gradually a round hole is started. 

 When the hole gets sufficiently deep the feet are used to some 

 extent in removing accumulated dirt from the hole. As the 

 hole gets deeper the sand is, in part at least, carried out in the 

 mouth, but in the majority of burrows there is always evidence 

 that at least part of the sand is clawed or scratched out. 



