The Cliff Swallows 
and twos and dozens, until most of the company are disposed again. 
At such a moment it is great sport to set up a sudden shout. There 
is an instant hush, electric, ominous, while every little Injun of ’em is 
making for the door of his wigwam. Then they dislodge themselves 
from the cliff like an avalanche of missiles, a silent down-sweeping cloud; 
but immediately they gain assurance in the open, and bedlam begins 
all over again. 
Once, in a wild, separate Paradise, in Kern County, we took lodgings 
for a night in a sandstone cave 
Taken in San Bernardino County Photo by Wright M. Pierce 
A FAMILIAR TRAGEDY 
BUT BIRDS CANNOT RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO USE HORSEHAIR 
which happened to shelter at its 
upper and outer rim a small colony 
of Cliff Swallows. There were ten 
pairs of them within ten feet of 
our sleeping heads. And they were 
more or less upon our minds all 
night long, as we, no doubt, were 
upon theirs, for every once in a 
while some restless bird would make 
an excursion out into the darkness 
to settle his nerves. Towards morn¬ 
ing I observed a new nest-note, a 
sort of croaking protest made by 
a bird when jostled (or so one would 
judge). Probably Mrs. Swallow 
was reminding her sleepy spouse 
that it was time to get up and seize 
the early bug; while he, poor soul, 
recalling his disturbed slumbers, 
grunted disapproval. 
During the morning which fol¬ 
lowed we learned to distinguish the 
chirp in several qualities or em¬ 
phases, the dimp, or china-smashing 
note of extreme alarm, and the 
creaking song. This song exhibits, 
in outline only, the characteristics 
of the more able Western Martin’s, 
especially when it is uttered from 
the mouth of the nest, as the Martin 
is so fond of doing. 
Both Grinnell 1 and Willett 2 have 
recorded how the Cliff Swallows of 
Sri 
•The Biota of the San Bernardino Mountains, p. 106. 
2 Birds of the Pac. Slope So. Cal., p. 90. 
