350 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



were erected for it along the rivers, lake shores and marshes, it would 

 gradually acquire this habit and become more numerous with us as a summer 

 resident. I have found it nesting in every county of the State where 

 I have made extensive observations of birds, but nowhere so abundantly 

 as in the marshes of Seneca river and about the Adirondack lakes where 

 dead timber and hollow trees are abundant. The nesting materials carried 

 into the boxes or hollow trees consist of grasses and feathers. The eggs 

 are 4 to 7 in number, pure white in color and average .75 by .55 inches. 

 Unlike the Barn swallow, it seems that usually only one brood is reared 

 by this species in parts of the State where I have observed it. 



Riparia riparia (Linnaeus) 

 Bank Swallow 



Plate 88 



Hirundo riparia Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:192 



DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 39, fig. 62 

 Riparia riparia A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 294. No. 616 

 riparia, Lat., pertaining to ripa, the bank of a stream 



Description. Our smallest swallow. Tail moderately forked; a small 

 tuft of feathers on the leg above the hind toe; upper parts brownish gray; 

 under parts white, especially the throat and abdomen; a distinct gray band 

 across the breast. 



Length 5.2 inches; extent 10.5-11; wing 4; tail 2; bill .18; tarsus .45. 



Distribution. The Bank sw^allow is holarctic in distribution, being 

 our only common species of small bird which is identical with the corre- 

 sponding European form. In America this species breeds from the edge 

 of the tropics to Labrador and Alaska. In New York it is generally 

 distributed throughout the State as a summer resident, very abundant 

 in some localities where sand banks are plentiful. The spring migration 

 begins from the 19th to the 30th of April. In the autumn the bulk of 

 the birds have left by the 25th of August, but a few linger on in western 

 New York until the middle of September and in the coastal district as 

 late as October i. 



