SUPPLEMENT TO BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY 1 53 



257 [613] Hirundo erythrogastra Bodd. 

 Barn Swallow. 



Abundant summer resident. April 10 to September 23; average date of 

 arrival for five years, May 2. 



Eggs: May 24 to July 12. 



In five years of the last fifteen, I have a record for the arrival of this bird 

 earlier than April 28 ; the earliest date, April 10, was in 1909. 



An interesting reference to the Barn Swallow in Essex County, overlooked 

 in the original Memoir, is as follows : " The natural breeding places of these birds, 

 before the settlement of the country, were caves, overhanging rocky cliffs, and 

 similar localities. Swallow Cave, at Nahant, was once a favorite place of resort."^ 



Although the Barn Swallow is still abundant in the County, its numbers are 

 decreasing, as already stated, owing to the decreasing numbers of old-fashioned 

 bams with their inviting open windows and doors. In June, 1908, I counted 

 fifty-five nests of this bird in a large barn at Ipswich, nearly all of which were 

 occupied. At times the air was filled with the music of their beautiful song, which 

 they delight to give in chorus ; at times all was silent except for the twittering of 

 the young in the nests begging to be fed. In the acre of " forest " on my place at 

 Ipswich this bird roosts to the number of fifty or more, and in July their early 

 morning chorus is very delightful. The larger roosts in the groves of the sand 

 dunes I have described at length elsewhere.^ 



The courtship song, besides being given on the wing in rapid flight or with 

 fluttering decurved wings, is also given from a perch. A group of forty or fifty 

 of these birds all singing together on the sunny side of a barn roof is very pleasing. 



Like other swallows and many other birds. Bam Swallows are fond of play. 

 They like to chase each other and I have seen one chasing a Sea Swallow or 

 Common Tern each twisting and turning with much grace and agility. Like the 

 Tree Swallow they are fond of dipping into the smooth surface of a pond, some- 

 times nearly if not quite submerging themselves. 



^ Baird, Brewer and Ridgway. History of North American Birds ; Land Birds, vol. 

 I, p. 342, 1874. 



^Townsend, C. W. Sand Dunes and Salt Marshes, p. 111-122, 1913. 



