CHAPTER V 



THE BARN SWALLOW* S RELATIVES 



BESIDES the Bam Swallow we have all 

 his cousins, the Bank Swallow, the Tree 

 Swallow, the Cliff Swallow, and the 

 Purple Martin working late and early to keep 

 down the flies, gnats and other winged insects 

 that otherwise would make our summers un- 

 bearable. And, like the Barn Swallow, all the 

 family are growing rarer as their old nesting 

 places are taken from them. 



Large numbers of Bank Swallows have been 

 going farther from cultivated lands, an evi- 

 dence that the formation of the river banks is 

 changing and the high sand bank, where they 

 would be unmolested, is disappearing. Noth- 

 ing could be more interesting than to watch 

 these birds in nesting season. Unlike the Barn 

 and Tree Swallows, they nest in colonies. For 

 their nests they have burrowed into the bank 

 so cleverly that they seem safe from all bird 

 enemies. Creatures that live along the 

 streams, however, sometimes search them out, 

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