SWALLOWS 267 



taken by this swallow are ants, wild bees, wasps, leaf hoppers, 

 plant lice, chinch bugs, dragonflies, and moths.J 



BANK SWALLOW; SAND MARTIN: Riparia nparia 

 nparia (Linnaeus). 



State records. — The bank swallow probably occurs regular- 

 ly in migration, but is apparently not at all common. It should 

 be carefully distinguished from the rough-winged swallow, 

 which also nests in banks. The spring migration should bring 

 the birds to Alabama by the last of March or first of April, 

 but the only record in spring is that of two birds which we 

 saw near Jasper, April 30, 1914 — one of which we secured. 

 Outsell noted their appearance at Bayou Labatre, August 7, 

 1911, and found them there irregularly during that month, 

 L. S. Golsan reports finding a small colony breeding in the 

 bluffs along the Alabama River, at Washington Ferry, 

 Autauga County, May 5, 1895, the only instance at present 

 known. He caught one bird in his hand on the nest and care- 

 fully identified it.* 



This species, as its name indicates, nests in holes in cut 

 banks, usually in rather large colonies. The burrows are 

 always at some distance from the foot of the bank, often with- 

 in a few feet of the top, and usually 3 feet or more in depth; 

 at the end of the cavity a nest of grasses and feathers usually 

 is constructed in which the 4 to 6 white eggs are laid. 



General habits. — The bank swallow, the smallest of its 

 family, is a strongly gregarious species, found in flocks both 

 in the breeding season and in winter. In migration it often 

 travels with other species of swallows, flying usually at no 

 great height with a rather unsteady, flickering flight. The 

 birds frequent pastures and cultivated lands and are especially 

 attracted by bodies oi. water. 



Food habits. — The food of this swallow consists almost 

 wholly of insects, with a few spiders. As with most of the 

 other swallows, flies constitute the most important element, 

 amounting to over one-fourth (26 per cent) of the total ; house 

 flies and crane flies are the kinds commonly taken. Beetles 



+Beal, Op. cit., pp. 16-18. 



*Golsan and Holt, The Auk, vol. 31, p. 230, 1914. 



