14 



the hills above the cliff in pursuit of iusects, as various localities, though presenting an 

 absence of timber, were amply covered with various flowering plants, upon and about 

 which there appeared sufficient numbers of lepidoptera and orthoptera, furnishing, 

 perhaps, the principal food of these birds in this portion of the State." 



Dr. Cooper writes: — 



" An abundant species throughout California, and as far north as Columbia River 

 on the coast. I saw the first of them at San Diego on March 15th, 1862, and at San 

 Francisco they arrive about March 25th, being a week earlier than the Barn-Swallow, 

 and also remaining later in autumn. I have seen them as late as October 5th, and they 

 probably remain longer towards the south. They live almost everywhere during 

 summer, except on the high and wooded mountains, building on the cliffs of the sea- 

 coast, where the cold wind blows, as well as in the hottest valleys, under eaves of houses, 

 and sometimes on the sides of large branches or trunks of trees. Their bottle-shaped 

 nests of mud, lined with straw, are conspicuous objects wherever they are allowed to 

 build them, some even being visible in the noisy city of San Francisco, which only this 

 species visits, sweeping through the crowded streets with entire fearlessness. The eggs 

 are usually four, white, spotted with dusky brown, and they hatch two broods in the 

 season in most parts of the State. When about the nest, they make a creaking noise 

 very different from the twitter of the Barn-Swallow. In June I saw a flock of these 

 birds busily catching young grasshoppers on the dry hill-side, where these insects w r ere 

 swarming. As I have never heard of other Swallows eating grasshoppers, I suppose that 

 this species is specially adapted for such food, other insects being very scarce during the 

 dry season, and in the dry regions it inhabits so frequently, where other species of 

 Swallows are unknown. This Swallow leaves Santa Cruz about September 1st, but pro- 

 bably only goes to the large rivers and lakes of the interior. To determine the question 

 as to bed-bugs being brought to houses by these Swallows, I allowed about twelve pairs 

 to raise broods under the eaves of the house I lived in at Santa Cruz in I860. They 

 built between April 12th and 20th, and the young were fledged July 1st ; some also had 

 laid new broods of two and three eggs by the 5th. On tearing down the nests I found 

 bugs (Cime.v) in every one, whatever part of the roof it occupied, showing that they were 

 brought by the birds, none having been observed in the house. But these bugs were 

 evidently a distinct species from the Cimex lectularius, being different in form, narrower, 

 and pale yellowish, instead of the characteristic colour from which the name ' Puce ' is 

 derived, through the French name of this insect. Moreover, although many crawled 

 into the cracks of the weather-boards, and could easily have entered the low bedroom 

 windows, none were seen afterwards. So I think we may relieve the Swallows of the 

 charge of bringing in these pests, and encourage their building in suitable places, on 

 account of the immense numbers of insects they destroy. As usual, their parasites are 

 peculiar to them, and may be called Cimex lunifrontis." 



According to Mr. C. II. Townsend, the species is " common in Northern California 

 in certain localities. A moderate number of Cliff-Swallows inhabited some buildings at 



