436 THE BANK SWALLOW. 



John, N. B., found a nest containing 3 eggs on the shore of 

 a lake in the suburbs of that city, July 3d, 1880. It was 

 " about 200 yards from the edge of the lake, on a dry spot 

 in the midst of a rather swampy patch of meadow." Mr. 

 Maynard gives the following description of a set of eggs well 

 identified, from Utah. Dimensions from .?5 X 1. 35-1. OOX 1.40; 

 varying from creamy to pale buff in color, spotted and 

 blotched with umber-brown of varying shades, with the 

 Hsual pale shell markings. 



THE BANK SWALLOW. 



Just above the tent where the bank curves. gracefully and 

 is quite a little above its ordinary height, a community of 

 Bank Swallows have selected their summer residence. A 

 grand sheet of water is this for them to skim, in their grace- 

 ful aerial evolutions. In every way a most delightful 

 Summer resort do they find this. Five inches long, dull 

 or grayish-brown above,, with pectoral band of the same, 

 and white underneath, like the Swallows generally, the 

 Bank Swallow (Cotyle ripa-rid] reaches us late in April or 

 early in May. In communities about river-banks, or quite 

 as readily in sand pits remote from the water, excavating 

 eighteen inches, or two feet, into soft, sandy earth, they place 

 in an enlargement, at the end of the burrow, a nest consist- 

 ing of dried grasses, loosely arranged, and containing four 

 or five white eggs, some .68X.50. A first set is laid late in 

 May or early in June, and a second may follow later. 



Breeding in North America generally, and spending the 

 winter from our southern coast southward into the West 

 India Islands, Cotyle riparia is found also in Europe. 



The Bank Swallow is easily mistaken for the Rough- 

 winged Swallow (Stdgidopteryx serripcnnis) ; very similar in 

 its general appearance and habit; but the latter can be dis- 



