262 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



beetles, the cotton-boll weevil, clover weevil, and other species 

 destructive to nuts and seeds. Small moths are frequently 

 eaten and butterflies occasionally. Dragonflies are a favorite 

 food, having been found in 65 of the stomachs examined, 7 

 containing no other food.* 



CLIFF SWALLOW: Petrochelidon albifrons albifrons 



(Rafinesque).t 



State records. — The cliff, or eaves, swallow is a common 

 spring and autumn migrant, arriving on the coast about the 

 last week in March and reaching the northern counties the 

 first week in April. Migration continues during April and 

 May and stragglers may be seen even as late as the first of 

 June. At Leighton, April 30, 1912, 1 observed a flock of about 

 a hundred of these swallows flying high over the fields. Small 

 numbers were seen at Jasper, May 5, Auburn, May 7, and Au- 

 taugaville. May 10 ; a flock of 12 was seen at Scale May 19, and 

 1 bird. May 22 (1914). Peters saw one on Petit Bois Island, 

 June 1, 1914, a very late date. Dr. Avery noted the bird only 

 in spring at Greensboro, and his collection contains 1 speci- 

 men taken May 1, 1890. McCormack at Leighton noted its 

 arrival in southward migration, July 22, 1891, and found it 

 abundant from August 7 to 31, 1887. He states that it re- 

 mains till the second week in September. The only place in 

 the State where this bird is known to breed is on the high 

 cliffs bordering the Tennessee River near Fort Deposit, where 

 a colony of about a hundred pairs have established themselves. 

 On June 18, 1913, large young could be seen in the nests of 

 this colony. 



General habits. — Cliff swallows are very sociable and un- 

 suspicious birds, always found in rather large colonies, and 

 often selecting for their nesting sites a building on the busy 

 street of a town or the low eaves of a barn near which people 

 are constantly passing. The nests are gourd-shaped struc- 

 tures of mud, plastered to the face of a cliff or the side of a 

 building, usually protected from the weather by an over- 



•Beal, F. E. L., Bull. 619, U. S.. Dept. Agr., pp. S-6, 1918. 



tPctrochcIidon Innifrons InnifronB of the A. O. U. Check-list ; for change of name 

 sec The Auk, vol. 34, p. 205, 1917. 



