Hirundo erythrogaster.
Lake Umbagog.
1907.
July 23.
  Early this morning I saw several Barn Swallows engaged 
in mobbing the Lakeside cat who was crouched at the time on the
edge of the piazza. The Swallows were evidently solicitous about
their young, which, however, were quite safe, being perched in a
row on the telegraph wire that passes the house. The parent birds
to the number of four or five would dart at the cat in quick suc-
cession coming in from the open field in front of the house at a
height of only a yard or two above the ground and on nearly a level
plane, not swooping down from above as Tree Swallows do under like
conditions. Nor did they snap their bills as the Tree Swallows
will when similarly engaged. As a rule they passed the cat well
out of reach but every now and then one came within a foot or two
of her head. Whenever this happened she would strike at the bird
with her right paw but rather slowly and clumsily I thought and
always without success. I have known cats that would have made
more profitable use of such an opportunity.
August 2.
  Awaking in my room at Lakeside about midnight, the night
dark and cloudy, I heard repeatedly the alarm cry of a Barn Swallow
which seemed to fly back and forth close past my window. It must
have been a bird that still has young in the nest in our barn, for
most of the Barn Swallows go off somewhere, I cannot find where,
to roost for the night, returning again in the early morning.