8 



twittering of the birds daring the breeding-season. As already noted, I saw 54 of the 

 completed nests, and many in various stages of advancement, under a 50-foot eave, down 

 in the river valley by Brandon. Similarly, the sheltered buildings by the river near Fort 

 Ellice were colonized. At Shoal Lake I saw a somewhat low building with about thirty 

 nests under the eaves. This was not in a sheltered place, but it overlooked the water. 

 About our own building at Carberry there never were any Cliff-Swallows, for the reason, 

 I believe, that they were out on the open prairie, remote from shelter and water. On 

 the other hand, the new mill at Assessippi, deep down in the sheltered valley, by the 

 millpond, offered every inducement, and, as I myself saw in June 1884, over 300 pairs 

 of Cliff-Swallows had commenced to build before the carpenters were out of the building. 

 The air around was filled with the birds, like bees about a hive, and their continual 

 twittering made in the aggregate such a volume of sound as to be an annoyance to the 

 inhabitants of the village. 



" In estimating their number I have assumed that each nest represented a pair. 



ajtm-AvtevatftM- 



" The accompanying photograph will illustrate the manner of their nesting in the 

 North-west of Canada." 



Capt. Blakiston writes : — " The Cliff-Swallow is also given in the 5 Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana ' and by Mr. Boss on the Mackenzie ; and I observed it in considerable 

 numbers under the eaves of the buildings at Fort Pitt, on the north branch of the 

 Saskatchawan, in June. While travelling over the prairie in the neighbourhood of Bow 

 River, our party came upon an immense granite-boulder, about 25 feet high, standing 

 alone on the plain. This had been taken advantage of by the Cliff-Swallow, the mud- 

 formed nests of which were clustered together in a mass. The steep cliffy banks of some 



