AUGUST BIRDS IN CAPE BRETON. 93 



tliirty feet long, were one hundred of the retort- 

 shajjed niud-nests of the eaves swallows. They 

 were placed one above another, frequently three 

 deep. Their bottle - mouths were pointed up- 

 wards, downwards, to left, or right, or towards 

 the observer, as the overcrowding of the tene- 

 ments made most convenient. While some of 

 the older nests were symmetrical, others were 

 of strange shapes, dictated by the form of the 

 building-site left to them. 



Bank swallows were abmidant, almost every 

 available cutting being riddled with their holes. 

 Near Baddeck I found one hole in a bank over- 

 hanging the waves at Bras d'Or, at a point where 

 every passing wagon must have made thunder in 

 the ears of the tiny occupants of the nest, which 

 was literally under the highway. I was attracted 

 to this nest by seeing a bird enter it. The Bay 

 of Fundy pours its terrible tides into the Basin 

 of Minas, and the Blomidon region presents to 

 the turbulent waters which rush into the basin, 

 not only vast expanses of red mud which are left 

 bare at low water, but also cliffs of rock or red clay 

 which resist the surging waves at high tide. In 

 the earth cliffs, which stand as straight as brick 

 walls above the floods, the bank swallows find 

 houses just to their liking, and from the cliffs of 

 Pereaux to the waving grass of Grand Pre the 

 little fleets of these birds flit back and forth hour 



