NATURE STUDY IN SCHOOLS. 



113 



CLIFF SWALLOW. 



Size, medium, about six inches long. Dark steel blue above, somewhat 

 streaked with lighter on the back. There is a buff lunette on forehead and 

 the rump is chestnut. Beneath, whitish. Throat, chestnut, enclosing a dark 

 spot. Breast and undar tail coverts ,pale chestnut. May 1 to Sept. 1, United 



States. 



Flight, heavy and less graceful than that of the barn or white-bellied 

 swallows. Song, a rather harsh, short warble. 



Fig. 59. 



fill i i t 1 Ml 



^ ^JJ 



Read and tail of adult Cliff Swallow. 



Nests, placed beneath the overhanging eaves of buildings, goured-shaped, 

 composed of mud, lined with a little grass, etc. Eggs, white, spotted with 

 reddish brown and lilac. 



The cliff swallows nest in colonies, usually beneath eaves, but occasion- 

 ally under cliffs. On account of this habit of building together in communi- 

 ties, they are rather local in distribution, especially as few farmers like to 

 have their buildings decorated with a row of the rather awkward looking 

 nests, and frequently destroy them as fast as the bird builds them until finally 

 the locality is abandoned. 





