268 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



form nearly 20 per cent of the total and include such destruc- 

 tive species as the cotton-boll weevil, alfalfa weevil, rice 

 weevil, and plum curculio. Twenty-five birds taken over the 

 cotton fields of Texas in September were found to have eaten 

 a total of 68 boll weevils, one bird having taken 14 of them.t 

 Other insects eaten by the bank swallow are ants and other 

 Hymenoptera, leaf hoppers, plant lice, dragonflies, Mayflies, 

 and a few caterpillars.J 



ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW; SAND MARTIN; GULLY 



MARTIN: Stelgidopteryx serripennis serripennis 



(Audubon) . 



State records. — The rough-winged swallow, the only swal- 

 low which nests regularly in the State, is a generally dis- 

 tributed and fairly common summer resident. 



It arrives from the south the last of March or first of April. 

 McCormack noted the first one at Leighton, April 6 (1893), 

 and Avery records the first at Greensboro, April 15 (1893). 

 Brown, at Coosada, noted its arrival on March 22, but states 

 that it was not generally distributed until the first wfiek in 

 April. It probably leaves in autumn about the last of Septem- 

 ber. 



General habits. — The rough-wing is not so gregarious as 

 its relative the bank swallow, breeding usually in small 

 colonies or in isolated pairs. It is the common "bank swallow"^ 

 of the South, found usually in the vicinity of streams or ponds 

 in nearly every locality. It spends much of its time in the 

 air in search of food, but is often seen resting on telegraph 

 wires or the dead branches of trees. Its flight is rather slow 

 and somewhat erratic. Its notes are harsh and squeaky but 

 not loud. In autumn the birds are said to gather into large 

 flocks and to roost at night in their burrows. 



The nests are placed in holes in cut banks, or in crevices in 

 stone walls or cliffs. A most remarkable site selected by 

 one or more pairs of these birds for their nest was on a but- 

 tress beneath the deck of a transfer steamboat which made 

 daily trips on the Tennessee River from Guntersville to Hobbs; 



tHowell, A. H., Biol. Surv. Bull. 29, p. 14, 1907. 



JBeal, F. E. L., Bull. 619, U. S. Dept. Agr., pp. 21-2B, 1918. 



