35

1916

(Barn Swallow) low over every neighboring field and meadow when I
visited that locality on May 28 [May 28, 1916]. Duren reports a very considerable
increase in the numbers frequenting his place. We had some breeding at
our farm last year but this season a single pair reoccupied the old nest built
there originally a dozen or more years ago and after that tenanted
for many successive years. After adding to it somewhat the present
spring the [female] laid 5 eggs and incubated them awhile but both birds
disappeared about June 10 [June 10, 1916] and on the 12th [June 12, 1916] I found wing and tail
feathers of one of them strewn over the cement floor of the 
neighboring open shed. As the nest was undisturbed I think the
bird must have been caught outside the building, while skimming low
above the ground, by some prowling cat.

46. Tree swallow. Two appeared at our Farm on April 6 [April 6, 1916]
and five on the 16th [April 16, 1916]. Towards the end of May we had three
pairs nesting in boxes one over the house shed, another over the carriage
shed, the third in an isolated apple tree across the road, near the well
house. There was a fourth nest in Bensen's pasture but none at
the Ritchie place. The birds at the farm were feeding young in two
boxes from June 18 to 28. The third nest there (on our shed) had
been for the season deserted before these dates. I saw the pair at
the box in Bensen's pasture on June 15 [June 15, 1916] and believe they raised their young.
It is not improbable that the Concord Tree Swallows suffered rather
severely from a heavy snow fall on April 28 [April 28, 1916] for they were decidedly
less numerous after than before it. Two birds that had begun
a nest in one of our boxes rather early in the season were driven
from it, when half completed, by a pair of Bluebirds the female of
which laid in it afterwards - only to have her eggs devoured
subsequently by some predatory mammal - as already related 
in these notes (under the Bluebird heading).