114 NATURE STUDY IN SCHOOLS, 



BANK SWALLOW. 



Size, small, about four and one-half inches long. Tail, slightly forked. 

 Color, above, mouse brown ; beneath, white, with a band of mouse brown 

 crossing the breast. Female similar. May 20 to Sept. 2. Middle U. S. 

 northward to the barren grounds. 



Flight, rather easy. Song, a low twitter. Eggs, white, unspotted. 



Nests, placed in holes found in sand banks by the birds. This little 

 swallow, although by far more abundant than the cliff swallow, is rather local 

 in distribution, being restricted to the neighborhood of the sand banks in 

 which it builds, and all the way from a few pairs to a thousand may be found 

 congregated together. They occur everywhere, but seem to prefer the coast. 



One of the most singular breeding places for the bank swallow, that I 

 ever saw, was a lonely islet, one of the Magdalen group, called Shagg Rock, 



Fig. 60. 



llfead and tail Of adult Sank Swallow. 



which, although near one of the larger islands, is situated more than a hun* 

 dred-> miles from the mainland. The rock rose abruptly from the water to 

 the height of ninety feet, but the top was covered with soil, portions of which 

 overhung the water, thus affording the swallows a fine opportunity to build. 



The rocky face of the cliff was inhabited by cormorants ; hundreds of 

 terns that were breeding on the upper surface, hovered confusedly about and 

 filled the air with their harsh, continuous cries, but amid all the discord the 

 soft twitter of the bank swallows could be- heard as they flew quietly about 

 their strangely chosen home. 



The bank swallow excavates its burrow with its feet and bill, and although 

 these members are comparatively small and weak, as in most of the swallows, 

 the birds manage to perform their work quite rapidly, often penetrating a 

 bank to the depth of three or four feet in a few days. The bank swallow 

 has a little tuft of feathers at the base of the hind toe, see fig, 61, d, t. 



