72 ■ The Wilson Bulletin — No. 95 



elude all of the publications of the society except a "Field 

 Check-list of Nebraska Birds" issued in 1908 and a "Prelim- 

 inary Review of the Birds of Nebraska" (116 pp.) prepared 

 by a committee of the N. O. U., Messrs. L. Bruner, R. H. 

 Wolcott and M. H. Swenk, and issued in 1904. 



The men who have served as President of the N. O. U. 

 since its organization are: L. Bruner (1899), I. S. Trostler 

 (1900), E. H. Barbour (1901), J. M. Bates (1902), F. H. 

 Shoemaker (1903), R. H. Wolcott (1904), Wilson Tout 

 (1905), S. R. Towne (1906), M. H. Swenk (1907), August 

 Eiche (1908), H. B. Duncanson (1909), L. Sessions (1910), 

 H. B. Lowry (1911), D. C. Hilton (1912), L. Bruner (1913), 

 T. C. Stephens (1914), and R. W. Dawson (1915). 



A RECENT INSTANCE OF THE NESTING OF BARN 

 SWALLOWS ON CLIFFS. 



NORMAN DE W. BETTS. 



It is generally accepted that the breeding places of Barn 

 Swallows before the white men built their hospitable barns 

 were in caves and overhanging cliffs. Definite records of 

 recent reversions to their old haunts are not very numerous 

 and -I have not run across photographs of nests so placed. A 

 recent instance of nests built on cliffs near the city of Madi- 

 son, Wisconsin, seems, therefore, worthy of record. 



In the Auk, volume XIV, Dawson describes a visit to the 

 headwaters of Lake Chelan in Washington, where he found 

 several nests of the Barn Swallow in a cave hollowed out by 

 the waves to a depth of some twenty feet. Two of the nests 

 contained eggs (July 9, 1895). These birds, however, had 

 probably never had any choice in the matter — no chance to 

 take advantage of modern opportunities. In the report of 

 the Geological Survey of Michigan, 1908, Peet describes the 

 finding of a 'nest of this species at Menagerie Island, Isle 

 Royale, in Lake Superior. It contained four young, nearly 

 able to fly, on August 17, 1905, and was " built against the 

 base of a cliff about twenty feet above the waves. A shelv- 



