SWALLOWS. 159 



The Barn Swallow is the most generally distributed 

 of our Swallows, its habits of nesting in outbuildings 

 Barn Swallow ma king it at home wherever they offer 

 Cheiidon it a suitable nesting place. It is about 



erythrogaster. seven inches long ; the upper parts and 

 sides of the breast are steel-blue, the 

 forehead and throat chestnut, the rest of the under parts 

 paler ; the tail deeply forked and marked with white. Its 

 long tail is a most efficient rudder, permitting the abrupt 

 turns which make its flight more erratic than that of any 

 other of our Swallows. It skims low over the fields, or 

 darts through the village streets with a rapidity and indi- 

 rectness which I never witness without astonishment. 



The Barn Swallow arrives from its winter home in 

 the tropics about April 15 and remains until late in 

 September. Its nest is generally placed on a beam in 

 a barn or other outbuilding, and is composed of mud 

 and grasses lined with feathers. 



The Cliff or Eave Swallow is less generally distributed 



than the Barn Swallow. It nests in colonies, placing its 



Cliff Swallow rows <rf mu( i tenements under cliffs in 



Petrockeiidon the West and beneath the eaves of barns 



lunifrons. in the East. It becomes much attached 



(Frontispiece.) to ^ loca]itjj and wnen undisturbed 



returns to it year after year, arriving from the South 

 about May 1, and remaining until late September. It is 

 six inches long ; the forehead is whitish, the crown and 

 back steel-blue, the rump rusty ; the throat chestnut with 

 a blackish area ; the belly white. 



Like the Cliff Swallow, the Bank Swallow nests in 

 colonies, and is very local during the breeding season. A 



Bank Swallow sandbank facing a stream or pond is 

 ciivicoia riparia. often chosen f or a home. Into it a 



(Frontispiece.) tunnel two or three feet in length is 

 bored, and at its end a nest of grasses and feathers is built. 



