BIRDS OF 



once the scene of last night's disturbance is quite and deserted, 

 as the birds have flown to other lands, where they find less 

 crowded beds and shorter, warmer nights." 



GENUS PETROCHELIDON CABANIS. 



234. PETROCHELIDON LUNIFRONS (SAY.). 612. 



Cliff Swallow. 



Lustrous steel-blue ; forehead whitish or brown ; rump rufous ; chin, 

 throat and sides of head chestnut ; a steel-blue spot on the throat ; breast, 

 sides and generally a cervical collar rusty-gray, whitening on the belly. 

 Young, sufficiently similar. Length, 5; wing, 4^; tail, 2%. 



HAB. North America at large, and south to Brazil and Paraguay. 



Nest, a flask-shaped building of mud, lined with wool, feathers and bits 

 of straw. 



Eggs, 4 or 5 ; white, spotted with reddish-brown. 



Early in May the Cliff Swallow crosses the southern 

 border of Ontario, and gradually works its way up to the far 

 north, breeding in colonies in suitable places all over the coun- 

 try. In towns and villages the nests are placed under the eaves 

 of outhouses ; in the country they are fastened under projecting 

 ledges of rock and hard embankments. The birds are of an 

 amiable, sociable disposition, as many as fifty families being 

 sometimes observed in a colony without the slightest sign of 

 quarrelling. Two broods are raised in the season, and by the 

 end of August they begin to move off and are seen no more 

 till spring. They are somewhat fastidious in their choice of a 

 nesting place, and on this account are not equally abundant at 

 all points, but still they are very numerous throughout the 

 Province. 



GENUS CHELIDON FORSTER. 



235. CHELIDON ERYTHROGASTER ( BODD.). 613. 

 Barn Swallow. 



Lustrous steel-blue ; below rufous or pale chestnut of varying shade ; 

 forehead, chin and throat deep chestnut ; breast with an imperfect steel-blue 



236 



