51 
Eleven observers report an increase of barn swallows, 
twenty-one report that tbeir numbers are as usual, and forty- 
one report a decrease. Franklin is the only county in which 
the reports of increase outnumber those of decrease. In this 
county also and in Middlesex and Essex counties there are 
the greatest number of reports that the bird is holding its 
own. From Middlesex there are nine reports of a decrease, 
but also eight that the numbers have not changed. Two 
report an increase. All reports from Suffolk County indi- 
cate a decrease, as might be expected from the accession of 
population ; but the same is true of Plymouth County, where 
there are few cities. 
The cliff swallow or eaves swallow is reported by only 
eight observers as increasing, as holding its own by sixteen, 
and decreasing or extinct by thirty-two. Most of those who 
find the cliff swallow decreasing agree that this has been go- 
ing on for twenty to thirty years. This bird was originally 
a native of the west, where it built its mud nests on cliffs 
overhanging rivers. Its eastern movement, which began in 
the time of Audubon (when it followed civilization eastward, 
nesting under the eaves of the settlers’ buildings), ended 
probably about 1850. At that time these birds had estab- 
lished colonies over a large part of Hew England, and were 
very abundant in the farming communities of Massachusetts. 
Soon after the introduction and spread of the English spar- 
row they began to decrease, and have diminished until their 
colonies in the eastern part of Massachusetts are now much 
fewer than formerly. So many reports have come in of the 
abandonment of nest sites and so few of the establishment 
of new colonies that one can only wonder where the birds 
have gone. 
The reports from Plymouth and Bristol counties seem to 
show that bank swallows are decreasing, as all observers who 
report at all on this species regard it as diminishing. The 
reports from the other counties are not so definite, except 
from Essex County, where they are now said to be increas- 
ing. 
In my special report published in 1904 the following 
statement was made: “It has been said that there are no 
