BIRDS OF THE AIR. 345 
formerly dwelt, and some have gone back to hollow trees. 
This bird is still common wherever it can nest unmolested 
by the Sparrows, and sometimes, though rarely, it nests in 
the same bird house with these impudent foreigners. 
Its note is a rather sharp but sometimes musical twitter. 
It is probably more useful than the Bank Swallow, for it is 
oftener seen about houses and gardens, where it catches flies, 
mosquitoes, and gardeninsects. Leaf-eating beetles, canker- 
worms, cabbage butterflies, small moths, click beetles, rove 
beetles and other beetles, winged ants, and many other flying 
insects form part of its food. It usually leaves for the south 
in August or September, but sometimes stays much later 
where bayberries or sumac berries, upon which it feeds, are 
plentiful. 
Barn Swallow. 
Hirundo erythrogaster. 
Length. — Six to seven inches, or a little more. 
Adult.— Above, very dark blue; tail deeply forked, showing white markings 
when spread; forehead, throat, and upper breast chestnut; lower breast 
and belly buff. 
Nest. — Built of mud, straw, and feathers; usually plastered to a rafter in a barn 
or shed. 
Eggs. — White, covered with brown spots. 
Season. — April to September. 
The note of the Barn Swallow brings to mind visions of 
fields of waving grass, wide barns, and well-filled mows, for 
this Swallow follows the cattle. It is a bird of the pastoral 
country, the farm, and the hayfield. Originally it nested 
in caves or on rocky cliffs. The rude barns of the early 
settlers offered it abundant safe nesting places, while the 
clearing of the land and the increase of cattle augmented the 
numbers of its insect prey. Swallows must have multiplied 
wonderfully with the settlement of the country, but they 
have rather decreased of late years. 
The twitter of this Swallow is musical; its flight is the 
poetry and grace of motion; its plumage is attractive to the 
eye; and its life is largely spent in destroying the insect 
foes of the farmer and his cattle. It is particularly servicea- 
ble about grass fields. The moths of the smaller cutworms, 
those of Arctians and Crambids, are among the injurious in- 
sects that it gleans when flying low over the grass. Every 
