128 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



sible by having breeding-places provided in barns and about 

 premises. A little trouble in this direction will be more than 

 repaid by the destruction of injurious insects. 



There are seven species of North American swallows, five 

 of which are fairly abundant. Of these the Barn-Swallow is 

 one of the commonest, occurring and breeding throughout 

 most of Canada and the United States. Too many of the 

 new barns are so planned that these birds cannot get inside 

 to build their nests and rear their young, but the wise farmer 

 will leave openings for this purpose. Most of their food is 

 captured on the wing, and consists of small moths, two- 

 winged flies, especially crane-flies, beetles in great variety, 

 flying bugs, and occasionally small dragon-flies. The young 

 are fed with insects. 



During " locust years " in Nebraska, Professor Aughey 

 found that these swallows fed very largely on the pests after 

 the latter began to fly : of three specimens shot after the 

 middle of June, two contained thirty-four locusts each and 

 the third one thirty-seven locusts. At such times they appear 

 to feed almost exclusively on locusts, as their stomachs con- 

 tained very few other insects. 



The Cliff-Swallow, or Eaves-Swallow, is irregularly dis- 

 tributed over the United States, breeding abundantly in many 

 localities and being rare in other districts. It flies over up- 

 land meadows and pastures, often skimming along near the 

 surface of the ground to catch the numerous leaf-hoppers 

 and other insects found there. A single specimen shot by 

 Professor King while the bird was skimming over a wheat- 

 field contained twelve leaf-hoppers, seven two-winged flies, 

 including one large crane-fly, six small beetles, and two 

 medium-sized ichneumon-flies. It has been reported to catch 

 numbers of small grasshoppers ; and -six specimens taken in 

 Nebraska after the western locusts had begun to fly had eaten 

 two hundred and twenty-nine of these insects, — an average 

 of thirty-eight to each bird. Five specimens studied by Pro- 



