12 BULLETIN 619, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



any time to give up the old-fashioned homestead for one provided 

 by man is shown, however, in all well-settled localities of the far 

 West. There it avails itself of barns, sheds, and bridges, as it has 

 long done in the East, where its right to a nesting place .among the 

 rafters is so well established that when new barns are built a hole 

 is frequently made up near the peak of the gable for the birds to pass 

 easily in and out. 



The food of the barn swallow, like that of its allies, consists almost 

 wholly of insects, with an occasional, spider or snail. A few bits of 

 vegetable matter are taken accidentally — that is, snatched from the 

 top of a weed or shrub with an insect taken as the bird dashes past. 

 Occasionally a berry or seed is eaten intentionally. Ordinarily all 

 food is taken on the wing, but snails have been picked up, probably 

 when the bird was getting mud for its nest. 



For the investigation of the food of this swallow 467 stomachs 

 were available, collected in the months from March to October, in 

 27 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada. The first analysis 

 shows that the food is made up of 99.82 per cent animal matter to 

 0.18 vegetable. The latter is considerably less than that eaten by 

 the cliff swallow. All the vegetable matter found was contained in 

 six stomachs, but it was real food in only four. One of these revealed 

 seeds of the elderberry {Sambucus) and of Cornus sericea. Vegetable 

 food in this stomach made up 75 per cent of the contents. The second 

 stomach held a single kernel of buckwheat, the third a root or bulb, 

 and the fourth two seeds of Croton texensis. Having taken so little 

 vegetable food, it seems curious that the bird should have eaten any 

 at all. 



Of the animal food beetles of various families amount to 15.63 per 

 cent. Useful species, that is, those that prey upon other insects, as 

 the predacious ground beetles (Carabidse) and the ladybirds (Coc- 

 cinellidse), amount to 3.4 per cent. The May-beetle family (Scara- 

 bseidse), apparently the most palatable, are eaten to the extent o*f 

 6.2 per cent. These are mostly small dung beetles of various species 

 of the genus Aphodius. One stomach was noted as containing 50 or 

 more, and another, several hundred. Snout beetles, or weevils (1.96 

 per cent) include a variety of species. First in interest is the cotton 

 boll weevil (Anthononws grandis), found in 12 stomachs, with an 

 average of somewhat more than 6 individuals each. Next in interest 

 is the rice weevil (Calandra oryza), which was identified in 8 

 stomachs, with 153 individuals in one, 50 in another, and from 15 to 

 20 in a third. Two species of the genus Sitona were found, S. 

 flavescens and S. Mspidula, both very destructive to forage crops. 

 Among other weevils were two of the destructive engraver beetles 

 that do so much damage to timber. In all, about 80 species of beetles 



