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 garden insects. 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 



