142 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



Railway, in Brookville, Indiana, is built upon stone piers, and 

 spans the hydraulic canal, some five or six feet above the water. 

 While at the depot during the past summer I saw a bank 

 swallow fly under the building with several blades of grass in 

 her bill ; and being curious to see what she would do with 

 them, I watched her, and saw her carry them through a two- 

 inch auger hole, which had been bored through a pine board. 

 The spot was inaccessible, owing to the water; but I know 

 from the droppings about the hole that this was her nest." 

 3' It is almost needless to add that this species usually burrows 

 in sand. The swallows lay four or five eggs, which are white, 

 unmarked, or spotted with brown and purplish. 



I. HIRUNDO 



(A) HORREORUM. Barn Swallow. 



(A very common summer-resident in most inhabited parts of 

 New England.) 



(a). About 4^- inches long from bill to fork of the tail. 

 Above, a dark lustrous steel-blue. An imperfect collar, the 

 same. Under parts and forehead, chestnut-red. Belly and 

 lower breast, paler. Tail forficate. Outer feathers much 

 longer than the others (from -2 inches), and all, except the 

 middle pair, with a white spot. 



(6). The nest is placed on the beams or rafters of a barn or 

 similar building, and usually is finished here by the middle of 

 May. A set of four or five eggs is then laid, and often another 

 in June, or even the early part of July. The eggs average 

 75 X "55 of an inch, and are white, sprinkled tolerably thickly 

 with purplish and brown. 



(c). The Barn Swallows are to be found almost throughout 

 New England. They reach the neighborhood of Boston ge'ner- 

 ally in the last week of April, but sometimes earlier, and re- 

 turn to the South in the first week of September. They are 

 usually very common in those places where they are found, 

 since they are almost invariably more or less colonial. They 

 are particularly abundant in old country-villages, and about 

 farms, where most of the barns, on account of their liberal 



