Plate XIII. 



HIRUNDO ERYTHROGASTER-Barn Swallow, 



Six species of iLc Swallow family are summer residents in Ohio. Of these the Barn Swallow is the 

 most abundant and best known. About the twentieth of April they arrive from the south, and if the 

 weather is favorable nest-building may begin at once. This year (18S0), on the tenth of May, I dis- 

 covered a nest with the full complement of eggs ; but usually the majority do not begin nidification 

 before the third week in May. Two broods are generally hatched during the season. 



LOCALITY: 



The effect of civilization upon the nesting locality of this Swallow is very marked. Formerly (and 

 indeed at the present day in the wild AVest), the nest was j^laced against the side of a rocky cliff, the 

 wall of a cave, or such other surface as would support it; but now these natural sites are entirely 

 abandoned for the safer, more convenient and comfortable ones afforded by barns, sheds, bridges, and 

 the various buildings incident to the town and farm. I]i the country a large barn is the favorite build- 

 ing-place. A colony composed of four or five, or even forty or fifty pairs, may occupy the loft, Avhcre 

 they stick their mud-houses aljout the beams and rafters, and seem to take great delight and satisfaction 

 in the thought that they are so well protected from the inclemency of the weather and the direct rays 

 of the summer sun. But to the farmers they are a great annoj^ance, a class of persons who have long 

 considered them a pediculous nuisance. 



POSITION': 



The nest is generally fastened to a perpendicular surface by the mud of which it is composed, 

 occasionally it is placed upon the upper side of a beam. When built against the rafter of a loft it is 

 quite close to the shingles, often there is just room enough between the rim of the nest and the roof 

 for the bird to go in and out. When attached to a beam, side of a building, or the pier of a bridge, 

 it is generally some feet from the covering above. 



MATERIALS: 



The principal material of the nest, and the one Avhich gives to it solidity and means of support, 

 is mud. This the birds collect from the bank of some neighboring pool, or from a mud-hole in the 

 barn-yard or road, and carry in their mouths to the selected site. Here they stick a few pellets of the 

 clay-mud to form the lowest point of the nest. They then begin at the sides and build upon this 

 toward the center, adding layer upon layer of pellets, increasing with each one the size of the curve, 

 until the cavity thus formed is sufficiently deep and wide. Bits of grass and fibrous material, and often 

 horse-hairs, are at intervals Avorked into the mud to give strength. When dry the structure becomes 

 quite firm, but its strength of course depends largely upon the quality of clay and the quantity of straw 

 used. The cavity is lined first Avith fine grasses, rootlets, and horse-haii's, in varying proportion,^^ 



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