410 HABITS OF THE BAKN SWALLOW 



myself that the holes were dug by the birds, though my as- 

 sistant thought so ; but they were probably refitted for the 

 reception of the nests. 



In New Mexico, I once saw large numbers of Barn Swallows 

 near Albuquerque, on the Eio Grande ; and at Los Pinos, a 

 little further along the same mighty river, these ubiquitous 

 birds were breeding about the town, in close association with 

 the gay and familiar little Burions {Garpodacus frontalis). 

 The adobe buildings furnished both these birds with inviting 

 homesteads, and there was a good deal of argument at times 

 between them, going to prove that no house is large enough 

 for two families. I never saw Barn Swallows at Fort Whipple, 

 where were plenty of White-bellies and Violet-greens and 

 Purple Martins among the pineries ; but those were days in 

 the infancy of the Territory, and things may have since 

 changed. Dr. Cooper relates that he saw many Barn Swallows 

 migrating past Fort Mojave on the Colorado River in May, 

 38G1 ; and he observed their arrival at San Diego and Santa 

 Cruz, California, late in March. He remarks that in this State 

 they frequent the sea-coast rather than inland localities, prob- 

 ably for their well-known delight in skimming the surface for 

 insects ; and that in wild districts they build in caves, which 

 abound along the sea-shore from San Diego to the Columbia 

 Eiver. Henshaw speaks of the very general distribution of 

 the species in the Middle Province. Ridgway found it most 

 abundant about Pyramid Lake, Nevada, where it nested among 

 the tufa-domes, each nest being attached to the ceiling of a 

 cave among the rocks, and each cave having generally but a 

 single pair. ITe also found nests in caverns of the limestone 

 cliffs on the eastern side of the Ruby Mountains ; and others 

 elsewhere, attached as usual in the East to rafters of buildings. 

 These " tufa-domes", as described by the same writer, are rocks 

 of remarkable form and structure, usually having rounded or 

 domed tops, being thickly incrusted with calcareous tufa, and 

 honey-combed beneath with winding passages and deep grot- 

 toes, in which various birds nested, such as the Burion, Say's 

 Pewee, and the Barn Swallow. Various other advices we have 

 from the West, particulary from the Pacific coast, attest that 

 this Swallow is primitively a troglodyte, or cave-dweller ; and 

 even in the East we have similar evidence in the " Swallow 

 Cave " at Nahant, which Dr. Brewer mentions as once a favorite 

 resort. In thus rehearsing the nestings of the Barn Swallow, 



