FOOD HABITS OP THE SWALLOWS, 
21 
No Orthoptera were found in this investigation of the food of the 
violet-green swallows. 
Lepidoptera are eaten by this swallow to a small extent (3.12 per 
cent). They were taken in five months, but in only three of these 
do they attain even a fair percentage. Eemains of small moths were 
found in seven stomachs and caterpillars in three. 
A small mass (4.09 per cent) , mostly of unidentifiable matter, was 
found in three or four stomachs. In two it was made out to be com- 
posed partly of Ephemeridse, which are easily crushed. 
Summary. — Little can be said of the food of the violet-green 
swallow. The mischief that birds do is usually through the vegetable 
portion of their diet. With this bird that element is eliminated at 
once. Whatever harm it does must be through the insects it eats. 
Of these the parasitic Hymenoptera are probably the most im- 
portant, and only less so are the few predatory beetles and bugs 
it destroys. On the other hand it devours an immense number of 
harmful and annoying insects. 
Following is a list of insects identified in stomachs of violet-green 
swallows, and the number of stomachs in which found : 
HEMIPTERA. 
Idiocerus dnzei 
Reduviolus sp 
Peritrechus fraternius. 
COLEOPTERA. 
Elaphrus ruscarius 
Agonoderus pallipes 
Brady cellus ruprestia 
Laccobius agilis , 
Hydrobius fuscipes 
Aleochara timaoulata 
AJeochara sp 
Oxypoda sp 
Philonthus sp 
Platystethus americanus- 
Agrilus sp 
C£>leopiera— ^continued. 
Aphodius granarius _. 
Aphodius vittatus 
AphodiMS sp 
Asemum. sp 
Hwmonia nigrictrnis — 
Diachus auratus 
Haltica sp 
Epitriw parvula-A 
Epitrix sp 
Notowus sp , 
Anthicus punotulatus\ 
Anthicus sp 
Cantharis sp 
Balcminus sp 
Dendrootonus englemanni-, , 3 
BANK SWALLOW. 
Riparia riparia. 
The bank swallow inhabits practically the whole world, and in the 
United States it is more or less local, depending in the breeding sea- 
son much on suitable places for nesting burrows. The nests are 
made by boring a nearly horizontal hole in the face of a bank of 
earth. In a state of nature suitable bluffs occur for the most part 
along the banks of streams, and it is probable that even now nine- 
tenths of the bank swallows in the country nest along watercourses. 
This species still adheres to its primitive nesting habits and does not 
use the structures of man, except to occupy the banks of earth ex- 
posed by his engineering operations. 
