354 REPUBLICAN OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 



^ About day-break they flew down to the shore of the river, one hun- 

 dred yards distant, for the muddy sand of which the nests were con- 

 structed, and worked with great assiduity until near the middle of the 

 day, as if aware that the heat of the sun was necessary to dry and har- 

 den their moist tenements. They then ceased from labour for a few 

 hours, amused themselves by performing aerial evolutions, courted and 

 caressed their mates with much affection, and snapped at flies and other 

 insects on the wing. They often examined their nests to see if they were 

 sufficiently dry, and as soon as these appeared to have acquired the re- 

 quisite firmness, they renewed their labours. Until the females began to 

 sit, they all roosted in the hollow limbs of the Sycamores (Platanus occi- 

 dentalism growing on the banks of the Licking River, but when incuba- 

 tion commenced, the males alone resorted to the trees. A second party 

 arrived, and were so hard pressed for time, that they betook themselves 

 to the holes in the wall, where bricks had been left out for the scaffold- 

 ing. These they fitted with projecting necks, similar to those of the 

 complete nests of the others. Their eggs were deposited on a few bits of 

 straw, and great caution was necessary in attempting to procure them, as 

 the slightest touch crumbled their frail tenement into dust. By means of 

 a table spoon, I was enabled to procure many of them. Each nest con- 

 tained four eggs, which were white, with dusky spots. Only one brood 

 is raised in a season. The energy with which they defended their nests 

 was truly astonishing. Although I had taken the precaution to visit 

 them at sun-set, when I supposed they would all have been on the Syca- 

 mores, yet a single female happened to be sitting, and gave the alarm, 

 which immediately called out the whole tribe. They snapped at my hat, 

 body and legs, passed between me and the nests, within an inch of my 

 face, twittering their rage and sorrow. They continued their attacks as 

 I descended, and accompanied me for some distance. Their note may be 

 perfectly imitated by rubbing a cork damped with spirit against the neck 

 of a bottle. 



A third party arrived a few days after, and immediately commenced 

 building. In one week they had completed their operations, and at the 

 end of that time thirty nests hung clustered like so many gourds, each 

 having a neck two inches long. On the 27th July, the young were able 

 to follow their parents. They all exhibited the white frontlet, and were 

 scarcely distinguishable in any part of their plumage from the old birds. 

 On they 1st of August, they all assembled near their nests, mounted 



