190S.] 



BIRDS. 



453 



had been constructed but the eggs not yet laid." Eoss listed the 

 species as common in the Mackenzie River region north to Rat River, 

 and as having been taken at Fort Simpson.^ MacFarlane refers to 

 the bird as follows: 



In 1856, about one hundred and sixty nests of these Swallows were, for the 

 first time, built under the eaves of the three principal buildings of Fort Good 

 Hope, Mackenzie River, but as many of the young were destroyed by Indian 

 boys, only one hundred nests were constructed at the same place the following 

 season. In 1806 a bird of this species was observed closely examining the 

 eaves of the houses at Fort Anderson, but * * * it flew away and never 

 returned. They, however, breed in large numbers along the banks of the 

 Lockhart and Anderson rivers, whence several examples were obtained.^ 



Baird records specimens from Fort Resolution, Big Island, and 

 Fort Good Hope.^' Macoim, on the authority of Spreadborough, 

 states that this species was first seen at Edmonton, May 13, 1897; a 

 few were nesting on the cut banks of the rivers between Edmonton and 

 the [upper] Athabaska in June, 1898; very abundant along Peace 

 River in 1903.^ Seton records the cliff swallow as nesting in great 

 colonies on the cliffs of Artillery Lake in 1907.^ 



Hirundo erythrogastra Bodd. Barn Swallow. 



The barn swallow occurs throughout the region north to Great Bear 

 Lake and the lower Mackenzie, but is somewhat local in distribution 

 and seldom is abundant. In its choice of nesting sites it seems about 

 equally partial to cliffs and buildings, but from the scarcit}^ of the 

 latter prol^ably the majority nest in the natural .manner. 



In 1901 this bird was not noted until we reached Fort Resolution, 

 where a few individuals were seen daily, July 5 to 9. While cross- 

 ing Great Slave Lake to Fort Rae I found a small colony nesting on 

 the precipitous sides of a rocky island near the mouth of the Northern 

 Arm, July 15, and collected a nest containing five eggs, and a female 

 bird. The birds were rather wild, even while we were in close prox- 

 imity to their nests. The nest taken was built on a small projecting 

 shelf on the perpendicular face of the cliff about 12 feet above the 

 water, and is composed outwardly of mud mixed with a little moss, 

 lined with a layer of dry gi'ass, and with a thick inner lining of 

 feathers of a species of gull (Lariis)^ and of the scaup duck {Mania 

 marila). A single bird was seen near Fort Rae July 21. 



In the summer of 1903 we first observed the barn swallow at Fort 

 Resolution, noting a few there June 22 and 23. During my trip 



« Arctic Searching Expedition, II, p. 244, 1851. 

 »Nat. Hist. Rev., II (second ser.), p. 280, 1862. 

 c Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIV, p. 443, 1891. 

 ^ Rev. Am. Birds, p. 290, May, 1865. 

 ^ Cat. Canadian Birds, Part III, p. 540, 1904. 

 ^Auk, XXV, p. 73, 1908. 



