The Batik Swallow 
of the presence of the Bank Swallow until one day we see a great company 
of them fluttering about a sand-bank which overlooks the river, all 
busily engaged in digging the tunnels which are to shelter their young 
for that season. These birds are regularly gregarious, and a nesting 
colony frequently numbers hundreds. 
The birds usually 
select a spot well up 
within a foot or two of 
the top of a nearly per¬ 
pendicular bank of soil 
or sand, and dig a 
straight, round tunnel 
three or four feet long. 
If, however, the soil con¬ 
tains stones, a greater 
length and many turns 
may be required to reach 
a safe spot for the slight 
enlargement where the 
nest proper is placed. 
The bird appears to 
loosen the earth with its 
closed beak, swaying 
from side to side the 
while; and, of course, 
fallen dirt or sand is 
carried out in the mouth. 
Sometimes the little miner finds a lens-shaped tunnel more convenient, 
and I have seen them as much as seven inches in width and only two in 
height. While the members of a colony, especially if it be a small one, 
usually occupy a straggling, horizontal line of holes, their burrows are 
not infrequently to be seen in loose tiers, so that the bank presents a 
honey-combed appearance. 
Communal life seems a pleasant thing to these Swallows, and there 
is usually a considerable stir of activity about the quarters. A good deal 
of social twittering also attends the unending gyrations. The wonder 
is that the rapidly moving parts of this aerial kaleidoscope never collide, 
and that the cases of turning up at the wrong number are either so few 
or so amicably adjusted. The nesting season is, however, beset with 
dangers. Weasels and their ilk sometimes find entrance to the nesting 
burrows, and they are an easy prey to underbred small boys as well. 
The undermining of the nesting cliff by the swirling river sometimes 
Taken near Santa Barbara Photo by the Author 
NEST AND EGGS OF BANK SWALLOW 
534 
