43 6 General Notes. [j^jjj. 



house, leaving twelve eggs unhatched. Occasionally a few return and 

 fly about as if trying to catch a glimpse of the inside of their home but 

 none have ventured to enter up to this date (July 17). — Frances B. 

 HoRTON, Brattleboro, Vt. 



Sand Swallows {Riparia riparia) Nesting in Sawdust. — In the sum- 

 Ttier of 1902, while I was in Franconia, N. H., Mrs. Annie Trumbull 

 Slosson pointed out to me a pile of sawdust, on the perpendicular face of 

 which, earlier in the season, she had noticed what seemed to be entrances 

 to Sand Swallow nests. The pile is constantly being shovelled away, 

 and at the time of my visit no holes were visible. 



This year (1903) Mrs. Slosson wrote me, under date of June iS, that 

 she had been out to the place (on the Easton road) two days before, and 

 seeing a hole in the vertical (newly dug down) side of the sawdust heap, 

 had taken pains to investigate the matter. 



"We sat in the carriage," she wrote, and watched the hole, and soon 

 saw a swallow enter it and, immediately after, another. They came out, 

 flew away, and returned, entering the hole again. Each time they went 

 in little clouds of sawdust puffed out like smoke. I got out of the 

 carriage and went up the mound to the hole. I put my hand and arm in 

 as far as I could, but it was not far enough to reach eggs or young, and I 

 was afraid of the mound's coming down upon me. After I returned to 

 the carriage the birds came back, but were very shy of going into the 

 ■disturbed hole, making several starts, vibrating their wings, then flying 

 away. But in a few minutes. they gained courage and again entered the 

 hole. I think there is not the slightest doubt that it is their home. I 

 could find no other hole, but have little question there were others which 

 had been wrecked by the workmen, who had been digging down that side 

 of the pile." 



Some days later she wrote : "On Saturday we drove again by the saw- 

 dust heap. There were full twenty holes, and apparently all were occu- 

 pied ; swallows flying in and out all the time, a regular colony, just as 

 you see them in a sand-bank. Poor simple creatures, I fear an earth- 

 quake — or dustquake — has even now destroyed their work." 



I begged her to make absolutely sure of the species, if she had not 

 ;already done so, though really there could be no reasonable doubt upon 

 that point, and on June 25 she replied: "Well, the species is all right. 

 I verified things yesterday. We went out to the mill, and I went up the 

 :steep, sliding mass to the holes, ' where the swallows dustward fly.' 

 About half a dozen of the holes had disappeared, but there were fourteen 

 left. The birds, came about me, and I easily identified them as Bank 

 Swallows, with white throat and a dark band across the breast." 



Whether the breeding of Sand Martins in sawdust heaps has ever been 

 i-ecorded I do not know, but the occurrence seems to me of considerable 

 interest, especially because the Sand Martin is the one member of its 



