994 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



145. GENUS CHELIDON FORSTER. 



*239. (013). Chelidon erythrogaster (BODD.). 



Barn Swallow. 

 Synonym, FORKFD-TAILED BARN SWALLOW. 



Adult. Above, lustrous steel-blue; below, rufous or pale chestnut 

 of varying shade; forehead, chin and throat, deep chestnut; breast, 

 with a.n imperfect steel-blue collar; tail, with white spots on the inner 

 web of all the feathers, except the inner pair; tail, deeply forked. 

 Immature. Less lustrous above; paler below. 



Length, 5.75-7.75; wing, 4.60-4.90; tail, 3.70-4.10. 



RANGE. America, from southern Brazil north to Greenland and 

 Alaska. Breeds from Mexico north. Winters in tropical America. 



Nest, bowl-shaped; of mud and straw, lined with feathers, fastened 

 by one side to timbers in a barn or to walls of a cave. Eggs, 3-5; 

 white, spotted with olive and rufous-brown; .77 by .54. 



The Barn Swallow is an abundant summer resident. It is not 

 found in colonies as is the preceding species, but frequents barns, 

 outhouses and old buildings in country and also in towns. There it 

 builds inside buildings, usually a single pair occupying a building. 

 Formerly it, too, nested in caves and in sheltered places against cliffs, 

 but has adapted its life to the changed conditions. 



Some years they arrive in southern Indiana before March is over, 

 but that is unusual. Earliest and latest dates of first arrival are: 

 Brookville, March 30, 1884, and 1887, April 23, 1893; Bicknell, March 

 31, 1897, April 19, 1894; Spearsville, April 5, 1897, April 19, 1895; 

 Edwards, April 2, 1897; Camden, April 20, 1896, May 2, 1894; Sedan, 

 April 17, 1896, April 29, 1895; Laporte, April 10, 1893, April 14, 

 1896; Petersburg, Mich., April 11, 1889, April 18, 1888. As with 

 some of the other Swallows, they may be found alon^ quiet stretches of 

 river or about ponds and other bodies of water quite early. These are, 

 doubtless, migrants. Often the summer residents do not appear about 

 their breeding places until after May 1. Thus one station near a pond 

 or lake will report migrants almost a month ahead of another but a few 

 miles from water. They, too, are destroyed by storms. That of May 

 20 and 21, 1883, killed many. I found them mating April 21, 1881, 

 and May 13 of that year found the nest with eggs. They often rear 

 two broods and occasionally^ three. Before leaving, in August, they 

 sometimes collect in considerable flocks. Usually they depart by Au- 

 gust 20, but sometimes after all appear to have gone, migrants from 



