The Barn Swallow 
themselves of the shelter 
offered by ranch build¬ 
ings. By way of con¬ 
trast, I recall a town in 
wester n Washington, 
Hoquiam, where a pair 
of these swallows had 
placed their nest under 
the porch roof of a tailor 
shop on one of the main 
streets. This nest held 
young birds nearly 
ready to fly on the 30th 
of August, 1910, and is 
perhaps one of the 
latest records known. 
A via media has been 
found in California, 
however, for the Barn 
Swallow has enthusias¬ 
tically accepted the 
wooden bridge as his 
portion. In the San 
Francisco Bay region, 
and especially in the San Joaquin Valley, where the country is intersected 
by a network of drainage or irrigating canals, these birds abound. Al¬ 
most every bridge from the least to the greatest is utilized. The smaller 
one will harbor a pair or two, while the greater may boast a hundred. 
In nesting, thus, over running water, the birds secure a certain immunity 
from predatory animals, and they are near their work, for insects abound 
over these canals. Two broods are reared each season, one in April 
or May, and another in June or July. At the time of flood water, in 
early June, there are anxious days for the nesting swallows. I have 
seen them much agitated on such occasions, as though knowing that 
danger impended; but a heroic mother will not fail to visit her brood, 
even though the stringers of the bridge clear the flood by no more than 
three or four inches. 
The nest of the Barn Swallow is quadrispherical, or bracket-shaped, 
with an open top; and it usually depends for its position upon the ad¬ 
hesiveness of the mud used in construction. Dr. Brewer says of them: 
“The nests are constructed of distinct layers of mud, from ten to twelve 
in number, and each separated by strata of fine dry grasses. These 
Taken in Washington Photo by F. S. Merrill 
NEST OF BARN SWALLOW 
