OF VIRGINIA 257 
fornia, southern Texas (west of longitude 97°), northern 
Arkansas, and North Carolina, and in Mexico south to 
Jalisco and Tepic; migrates through the Bahamas and 
the West Indies and winters from southern Mexico to 
Brazil, northern Argentina, and central Chile; accidental 
in the Galapagos, Bermuda, and Greenland. 
There is no doubt but that the swallows add more to 
the beauty of the farm than any other bird, to say nothing 
of the benefit done by the multitudes of insects destroyed 
by them. The Barn Swallow especially, with his graceful 
flight and twitterings in and around the buildings, is a 
most sociable little fellow, and after once establishing his 
nest on some sill or rafter in one of the outbuildings, 
seems to mind very little the presence of man. Under 
some wharf on a ledge or rafter is another favorite site 
for a nest, while the greatest colony for a small place I 
think I ever saw, was in the life-saving surf boathouse 
on the back of Smith Island, Va. The shed was some 
thirty-five or forty feet long, by twelve feet wide, open 
at the south end, and sitting up on piles about six feet 
above high water. There must have been at least one 
hundred pairs of birds oceupying this ideal place. The 
nest is composed of mud, straws and grasses, lined with 
feathers, and is attached to the side of, or on, some beam 
or joist. The eggs number three to five, ereamy-white, 
spotted and specked with reddish-brown and lilac. Size, 
80x.55. They do not winter with us, arriving in numbers 
about April 14th, and commence nest building by May 
5th. Fresh eggs May 12th; second broods quite common, 
June 28th. Weather conditions affect nest building 
materially, for unless near some mud hole, muddy bank 
of stream, or other likely place, they are unable, during 
