THE CLIFF SWALLOW. 275 



Nest, an inverted stack-shaped, or declined retort-shaped structure of mud, 

 scantily or well lined with grass, and depending from the walls of cliffs, sides of 

 barns under the eaves, and the like. Bggs, 4-5, white, spotted, sometimes scantily, 

 with cinnamon- and rufous-brown. Av. size, .82 x .55 (20.8 x 14.). 



General Range.- — North America, north to the limit of trees, breeding south- 

 ward to the Valley of the Potomac and the Ohio, southern Texas, southern Ari- 

 zona, and California ; Central and South America in winter. Not found in Florida. 



Range in Ohio. — Not common summer resident. Locally abundant. 



NOTHING so charms the vision of the small boy of egg-collecting pro- 

 clivities as the sight of a long double row of mud bottles under the eaves of a 

 huge hay-barn. Here at last are nests as he has dreamed of them, not the 

 solitary baskets close hidden under a cover of protecting green, but nests out 

 in the open, nests by the dozen — "nests to burn" as he excitedly tells himself, 

 while he runs to besiege the farmer host for a ladder. If he climbs toward 

 the coveted nests, anxious heads, wearing a white frown, are first thrust out 

 at the mouths of the bottles, and then the air becomes filled with flying Swal- 

 lows, charging about the head of the intruder in bewildering mazes, and fill- 

 ing the air with strange frangible cries, as tho a thousand sets of toy dishes 

 were being broken. The neck of the mud flask must first be broken off 

 before the hand can be inserted, and then the lad will find four or five speckled 

 eggs, reposing upon the scantiest lining of straw or.^pon the bare mud bottom. 



In building, the Swallows repair to some river bank or mud hole, and 

 secure a pellet of mud, kneading it in the beak until the required consistency is 

 reached, and then pressing it firmly against the chosen wall. The little 

 mason uses its beak for both hod and trowel, and it frequently experiences no 

 little difficulty in laying the foundations of its nest on a smoothed or painted 

 surface. Formerly, of course, the Cliff Swallows built only against the faces 

 of cliffs or clay banks, as they do in the West to-day in immense numbers. Now, 

 however, they are found only on the outside of buildings, easterly, and are 

 quite at the mercy of man's reception. 



The history of this species in Ohio cannot certainly be written. It was 

 once supposed that all "Republican" Swallows were invaders from the West, 

 but evidence of their aboriginal occupancy of New York and some of the New 

 England states has more recently come to light ; and it is not improbable that 

 colonies were to be found in Ohio before the advent of the white man. Audu- 

 bon noted a colony at Newport, Kentucky, in 1819. Dr. Kirtland in 1838, 

 speaks of them as having recently extended their settlements to several build- 

 ings in the western part of Cincinnati, and noted a company that same season 

 building their nests on a barn in the northern part of Columbiana County. 

 Dr. Wheaton in 1880 regarded the Cliff Swallow as a "very common summer 

 resident." Today it is not at all common through any considerable section, 

 and I have found it nesting but twice, both times in Lorain County. Its recent 



