256 
HARPER’S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
BIRDS’ NESTS. 
ii. 
CLIFF SWALLOW’S NEST. 
DOUBLE NEST. 
I N my first article on birds’ nests, in tlie June 
number, I divided them into four classes — 
those supported from beneath, those supported 
from above (or pensile), those supported on one 
side, and those which are excavations in earth or 
wood. The first two classes I treated in that ar- 
ticle ; the last two are the subjects of this paper. 
The nests of certain swallows are among those 
supported on one side ; and to the cliff or eaves 
swallows I shall first direct the attention of my 
readers. These birds have caused much interesting 
speculation ; their past history is but little known. 
The question is, Have they actually migrated east- 
ward from the Mississippi to the Atlantic since the 
settlement of the United States by Europeans, or 
have they apparently done so by 
gradually leaving their natural 
haunts for those of man ? It would 
be improper to introduce here such 
evidence and scanty records as we 
have of their early history; but at 
least one fact is known — that they 
formerly built their nests altogeth- 
er on cliffs or steep banks (still 
doing so in some wild parts of the 
country), and now build them un- 
der the eaves of barns, etc. Had 
they been in New England when 
it was first settled, and if they be- 
gan to use barns sixty years ago, 
as they are known to have done, 
their change of habit would have 
followed civilization westward ; but 
their appearance about man’s build- 
ings was remarked in the West 
first, and the recorded dates be- 
come generally later the further to 
the eastward that they have been 
established. The observant Wilson, who ransacked Pennsylvania from 
1790 to 1810, never saw them, and his successor, Bonaparte, speaks of 
the cliff swallow as “annually invading a new territory farther to the 
eastward,” and says, “This induces us to conclude that a few more sum- 
mers will find it sporting in this immediate vicinity, and familiarly 
SECTION OF GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER S 
NEST. 
woodpeckers’ 
NESTS. 
