POOD HABITS OF THE SWALLOWS. 



21 



No Orthoptera were found in this investigation of the food of the 

 violet-green swallows. 



Lepidoptera are eaten by this swallow to a small extent (3.12 per 

 cent). They were taken in five months, but in only three of these 

 do they attain even a fair percentage. Kemains of small moths were 

 found in seven stomachs and caterpillars in three. 



A small mass (4.09 per cent) , mostly of unidentifiable matter, was 

 found in three or four stomachs. In two it was made out to be com- 

 posed partly of Ephemeridee, which are easily crushed. 



Summary. — Little can be said of the food of the violet^green 

 swallow. The mischief that birds do is usually through the vegetable 

 portion of their diet. With this bird that element is eliminated at 

 once. Whatever harm it does must be through the insects it eats. 

 Of these the parasitic Hymenoptera are probably the most im- 

 portant, and only less so are the few predatory beetles and bugs 

 it destroys. On the other hand it devours an immense number of 

 harmful and annoying insects. 



Following is a list of insects identified in stomachs of violet-green 

 swallows, and the number of stomachs in which found : 



HEMIPTERA. 



Idiocerus duzel 



Reduviolns sp 



Peritrechus frateruus- 



COLEOPTEHA. 



Elaphrus ruscarlua 



Agonoderus palUpes 



Bradycellus ruprestis 



Laccobius agilis , 



Hydrobius fuscipes 



Aleochara UmaouTata 



Aleocham sp 



Oxypoda sp 



PMlontlius sp 



Platystethus americanus- 

 Agrilus sp 



cpleoptjdra— 'continued. 



Aphodius granarius 



Aphodius vittatus 



Aphodius sp 



Asemum sp 



Hmmonia nigricbrnts 



Diachus auratus 



Haltica sp 



Epitriw parvula,-* 



Epitrix sp 



Notoocus sp , 



Anthicus punotulatus^ 



Anthicus sp , 



Omitharis sp 



Balcminus sp 



Dendroctonus englemanni 



BANK SWALLOW. 



Riparia riparia. 



The bank swallow inhabits practically the whole world, and in the 

 United States it is more or less local, depending in the breeding sea- 

 son much on suitable places for nesting burrows. The nests are 

 made by boring a nearly horizontal hole in the face of a bank of 

 earth. In a state of nature suitable bluffs occur for the most part 

 along the banks of streams, and it is probable that even now nine- 

 tenths of the bank swallows in the country nest along watercourses. 

 This species still adheres to its primitive nesting habits and does not 

 use the structures of man, except to occupy the banks of earth ex- 

 posed by his engineering operations. 



