ee 
BLUE OR METALLIC BLUE 501 
Geographical Distribution: Whole of North America, migrating to Cen- 
tral and South America, 
California Breeding Range : Chiefly coastwise in more northern portions, 
but local elsewhere throughout the State. 
Breeding Season May and June. 
Nest: A cup or bowl-shaped structure ; made of pellets of mud mixed 
with straws, etc.; lined with feathers ; attached to the side or roof of 
a cave, or to timbers in barns or other buildings. 
Eggs: 3 to 4 ; speckled with brown and lavender. Size 0.68 X 0.50. 
ALTHOUGH choosing to live in a stable loft, the Barn 
Swallow is an aristocratic-looking bird, his long forked 
tail giving him an air of elegance unrivalled by any of his 
comely relatives. Among a family remarkable for their 
swift, graceful flight he has no superior. Circling low 
over the earth in search of the insects that live in moist 
places, or fluttering like a huge butterfly at the edge of 
a puddle as he gathers mud for his little nest, his is 
indeed the ‘ 
‘poetry .of motion.” 
On the inside of the barn, among the rafters of the 
roof, is his cup-shaped nest made of alternate layers of 
mud-pellets and hay. Once during the long afternoons 
of late spring time I watched these little masons build. 
Male and female brought mud in their beaks and _plas- 
tered it to the rough boards. Then long wisps of hay 
and bits of hair were carried and tucked into place with 
much poking and patting of the bill. Feathers of all 
sorts were stuck in promiscuously, until the whole looked 
as much like a ruffled, headless, Shanghai chicken as 
like a nest. Some naturalists assert that saliva is mixed 
with the mud to make it sticky, and it seems to me this 
must be, for the nest is much firmer than that of the 
eave swallow and can be taken down intact. 
