The Bank Swallow 
No. 106 
Barn Swallow 
A. 0. U. No. 613. Ilirundo rustica erythrogaster Boddaert. 
Synonyms.— American Barn Swallow. Fork-tailed Swallow. 
Description. — Adult: Above lustrous steel-blue; in front an imperfect (in¬ 
terrupted) pectoral collar of the same hue; forehead chestnut; lores black; throat and 
breast rufous; remaining underparts, including lining of wings, more or less tinged 
with the same, according to age and season; wings and tail blackish, with purplish 
or greenish reflections; tail deeply forked, the outer pair of feathers being from one to 
two inches longer, and the rest graduated; white blotches on inner webs (except on 
middle pair) follow the bifurcation. Immature: Forehead and throat paler; duller 
or brownish above; lateral tail-feathers not so long. Length of adult 177.8 (7.00) 
wing 120.6 (4.75); tail 76.2-114.3 (3.00-4.50); bill from nostril 6.1 (.24). 
Recognition Marks. —Aerial habits; rufous of throat and underparts; forked 
tail; nest usually inside the barn. 
Nesting. — Nest: A neat bracket or half-bowl of mud; luxuriously lined with 
grass and feathers; and cemented to a beam of barn or bridge. In the West still nests 
occasionally in original haunts, viz., cliffs, caves, and crannied sea-walls. Eggs: 
3 to 6; ovate or elongate ovate; white, or, rarely, pinkish white, spotted sharply and 
sparingly and rather uniformly with reddish brown of several shades and vinaceous 
gray. Av. of 23 southern-taken eggs: 18.8 x 13.2 (.74 x .52). Season: May, June; 
one or two broods. 
General Range. —North America, breeding from northwestern Alaska, southern 
Manitoba and southern Ungava, south to North Carolina, northern Arkansas, and 
southwestern Texas, thence throughout the southwestern states, and in Mexico south 
to Jalisco and Tepic. Winters from southern Mexico to Brazil, Argentina, and central 
Chile. 
Distribution in California. —An abundant migrant practically throughout 
the State; remains to breed in favorable sections west of the Sierras, more sparingly 
and locally east of the Sierras and in southern California. Most abundant in the 
Tulare-Merced section and in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay. Found interruptedly 
along the sea-coast and commonly upon the islands. Occurs sparingly in winter in 
the Imperial Valley (van Rossem). 
Authorities.—Heermann (Ilirundo rufa), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, 
ii., 1853, p. 261 (Calif.); Cones, Birds Col. Val., 1878, p. 407 (syn., habits, etc.; see also 
p. 364); Beal , U. S. Dept. Agric., Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 30, 1907, p. 30 (food); van Rossem, 
Condor, vol. xiii., 1911, p. 133 (Imperial Valley in winter); Tyler, Pac. Coast Avifauna, 
no. 9, 1913, p. 91 (Fresno; occurrence, habits, nesting). 
ONE hardly knows what quality to admire most in this boyhood’s 
and life-long friend, the Barn Swallow. All the dear associations of life 
at the old farm come thronging up at sight of him. You think of him 
somehow as a part of the sacred past; yet here he is today as young 
and as fresh as ever, bubbling over with springtime laughter, ready 
for a frolic over the bee-haunted meadows, or willing to settle down on 
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