10 



the nest in an enlarged cavity. Besides this, they like to build in holes in masonry, near 

 water. In the few observed instances of their digging a hole for themselves, they 

 worked in rather a slovenly way, making holes larger than appeared necessary, and 

 invariably circular at the entrance — the Bank-Swallows' holes, on the contrary, being 

 quite symmetrically elliptical, with the longer axis horizontal, and no larger than required 

 for the free passage of the birds — too small to admit the band, while the Bough-wings' 

 nests may usually be reached without difficulty, except when built in masonry, in which 

 latter case the birds may pass through a crevice barely wide enough to admit them } 

 providing the cavity within be suitable for a nest. The nests of S. serripennis are more 

 carelessly constructed, as a rule, than those of C. rlparia are j the birds do not seem to 

 search at any distance for particular materials, being satisfied with anything that may 

 be at hand, One nest, built in a Kingfisher's hole in a sand bank about fifteen rods from 

 a poultry-yard, was composed entirely of the feathers of domestic fowl. In another 

 instance, three fresh eggs were found on the bare sand, in a mere pocket barely six 

 inches deep, indicating that the mother bird was so pressed to lay that she had no time 

 to complete her nest. Not infrequently fresh eggs are found in the same nest with 

 others far advanced in incubation, and occasionally fresh eggs, others newly hatched, 

 and young birds may be found together. 



" Other writers witness a still wider range of variation in the nidification of the 

 Bough-wings. Cooper speaks of their nesting in California in burrows in sandy banks, 

 two or three feet deep, closely crowded together, and near the upper edge of the embank- 

 ment ; as well as of their resorting sometimes to natural clefts in banks, in adobe 

 buildings, and even in knot-holes. Their breeding in the last-named places is probably 

 exceptional, but it is known that even the Bank-Swallow, the most inveterate and 

 conservative of the family, will sometimes take to a tree, and Henshaw furnishes probable 

 confirmation of Cooper's statement. He noticed Bough-wings several times in suspicious 

 proximity to some dead stubs ; and though lie never saw one enteriug the cavities, he 

 thought it probable that the birds sometimes availed themselves of such retreats in the 

 absence of banks suitable for excavation. 



" The general presence and behaviour of our Swallows is so little varied, as well as 

 so familiar, that nothing need be said on this score ; the Bough-wing resembles the 

 Bank-Swallow in these respects as closely as it does in coloration and physique. The 

 eggs, as in all our species excepting the Barn and the Cliff, are immaculate white, and 

 about as large as the Barn-Swallow's, measuring about 075 in length by a trifle over 

 050 in breadth ; they are said to be rather more uniformly oblong and pointed than 

 those of the species just named, and commonly five or six in number. 



" I may conclude by referring to a note which I published not long since, on a 

 supposed change of habit of the Bank-Swallow, but which proves to have really been 

 based on the present species instead. As recorded in Am. Nat. x. June 1876, p. 372, 

 under head of ' Notable Change of Habit of the Bank-Swallow,' I was informed by Dr. 

 Bufus Haymond that a Bank-Swallow had nested in a building in Brookville, Indiana. 



