15 



other species, for Mr. Allen lias known a pair to turn Cliff-S wallows out of doors, and 

 occupy the premises. 



" I suppose I hardly need describe the nest itself — an object as familiar to most 

 persons as a cobweb or a pitchfork — an untidy mass of raw material, fresh from the 

 bosom of mother earth, witli ' hay-seed in the hair,' and a smell of the stable, like 

 the typical Granger himself. These nests are composed ordinarily of little pellets of 

 mud stuck together in layers, with hay intervening ; for these birds have never learned 

 it seems ' to make bricks without straw,' like their more ingenious cousins of the eaves. 

 Outside, the hay hangs unkempt; inside these stout adobe Avails there is a good soft 

 stuffing of fine grasses, and a thick warm bed of feathers. The nests vary endlessly 

 in size, shape, and degree of finish, according to the character of the site selected, 

 the kind of materials most available, the facility of gathering them, and doubtless also 

 the stress of impregnation under Avhich the female may be labouring. 



" One point about this Swallow's nest-building, however, may not be generally 

 known. I give it in the words of our respected friend Dr. Brewer, with whose life-long 

 observation of our birds I have too frequent occasion to differ; — 'A striking peculiarity 

 of these nests is frequently an extra platform built against, but distinct from, the nest 

 itself, designed as a roosting-place for the parents, used by one during incubation at 

 nights or when not engaged in procuring food, and by both when the young are large 

 enough to occupy the whole nest. One of these I found to be a separate structure from 

 the nest, but of similar materials, three inches in length and one and a Jialf in breadth. 

 The nest had been for several years occupied by the same pair, though none of their 

 offspring ever returned to the same roof to breed in their turn. Yet in some instances 

 as many as fifty pair have been known to occupy the rafters of the same barn.' 



" Under ordinary circumstances these Swallows raise more than one brood each year, 

 and usually four, five, or six are a nestful. Notwithstanding the notorious regularity of 

 their migration, their breeding is rather an arbitrary matter, and it is not uncommon to 

 find at the same time nests containing; fresh egtrs and others with fledoiiu2:s. At this 

 season, the activity of the parents is at its maximum, and their eirergy is taxed to sap])ly 

 voracious throats with insects captured on tireless wings. The rate of speed in flying, 

 the distances traversed in a given period, and the numbers of insects destroyed, ]ia\c all 

 been the subjects of some curious calculations, — or rather speculations, for these matters 

 scarcely admit of mathematics. Wilson supposed a Swallow to liy about a inile a 

 minute, for ten hours a day, for ten years, — equivalent to more than eighty-seven times 

 around the world ! However this may be, let us trust that these matchless wings mav 

 lu'ing the Swallows again next year, as they have this ; and let us lonk Icniintly. r\('n 

 encouragingly, upon the various superstitions of folk-lore, which feml to ])ix)tccl niul 

 foster these amiable, these charming and useful creatun^s — even tliongh we may nut IV'ar 

 that to kill them is to make the cows "ive l)loodv milk ! " 



Mr. L. M. Turner gives the following interesting note on the species in Alaska : — 

 " The Barn-Swallow arrives at Saint ^[ichael's about the 7th of June. A r('\\ df the 



