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550 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
This probably is our most abundant and uniformily distributed swallow, 
although perhaps not as well known as the Barn Swallow. It is the earliest 
of our swallows to arrive from 
the south and the last to leave 
in the fall. Not infrequently 
considerable numbers arrive late 
in March, and flocks are almost 
invariably seen in October, often 
quite late in the month. Mr. 
Swales recorded a few unusually 
early birds near Detroit March 
27, 1901, and has seen them in 
the same vicinity as late as 
October 18, 1890. Mr. L. 
Whitney Watkins recorded them 
as still present in flocks at SR ean eas ic 
Manchester, Washtenaw county, From Bae eee ae American Birds. 
on October 24, 1904. Ordinarily Tittle’ Brown! d\Co. 
it appears in the southern tier 
of counties from the Ist to the 15th of April and reaches the Upper Peninsula 
before the end of the month. Both in spring and fall it moves commonly 
in large flocks and especially in the fall these reach an immense size, num- 
bering at least several thousand individuals. 
The White-bellied Swallow is found all over the state and doubtless 
nests in favorable places in every county, but rather less plentifully in the 
southern part of the state. Before the settlement of the country it probably 
nested altogether in woodpeckers’ holes and hollow stumps, and it still 
uses such places very freely, this fact giving rise to the names Tree Swallow 
and Stump Swallow. But it also nests freely in boxes prepared for it, 
and often uses cavities about the eaves and cornices of buildings, which 
has given the name Eave Swallow in many localities. The nest rarely 
if ever contains mud in its composition, but is built of grasses, leaves, and 
similar fibrous materials, and plentifully lined with feathers, and according 
to several observers a decided preference for white feathers is shown. 
The eggs are three to six, pure white, unspotted, and average .75 by .52 
inches. Two broods are often reared in a season, the first eggs being 
laid early in May in the southern part of the state, and the second set late 
in June. 
As with other swallows the food consists almost entirely of winged insects 
and the bird is decidedly beneficial to the farmer. Often on its first arrival 
in spring it would seem impossible that it could find suffi- 
cient insects to keep it alive, but we have seen it repeat- a 
edly catching stone-flies (Perlidee) when the mercury was eoaie ae 
only two or three degrees above freezing, and during these ae aes 
cold spells it is often seen to pick insects from the surface yyeaq 
of the snow, or from twigs, fences and sides of buildings. 
It winters regularly in the south, in immense numbers, and one of its staple 
foods there is the berries of the wax-myrtle or bayberry (Myrica), with 
which its stomach is often found crammed. In spite of its hardiness it 
is frequently overtaken by cold waves and heavy storms and sometimes 
perishes in vast numbers. Such a catastrophe overtook the species in 
Florida in February 1895, when doubtless hundreds of thousands perished. 
This will be remembered as the season which destroyed such a large part 
of Tree Swallow. 
