398 
SINGING BIRDS. 
of the Cliff Swallow with which it was faced ; a small colony 
having taken up their abode here. These were, as usual, made 
of pellets of mud, enclosed at the top, but without the retort 
necks. 
Like the rest of their congeners, these birds are almost per- 
petually on the wing in quest of flies and other small insects 
which constitute their ordinary food. Their note does not 
appear to resemble a twitter, and according to Audubon it 
may be imitated by rubbing a moistened cork round in the 
neck of a bottle. In Kentucky, until the commencement of 
incubation, the whole party resorted to roost in the hollow 
limbs of the buttonwood-trees. However curious, it is certain 
that the birds have but recently discovered the advantage of 
associating round the habitations of men. 
Numerous colonies of this species are found throughout New 
England and the Maritime Provinces, and a few pairs have been 
seen at Point de Monts, on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence, which is the limit of its northward range near the Atlantic. 
It is highly probable that the habit of breeding in large commu- 
nities, and thus becoming “ local ” in distribution, will account for 
the report of their having moved eastward during the first half of 
the present century. As a matter of fact, Audubon discovered the 
species in Kentucky five years before Say found it among the 
Rockies. That the older writers knew so little about the bird 
should not be taken as evidence of its absence, — they failed to 
learn the history of several equally common species ; and after the 
added years we are still ignorant of the breeding habits of some of 
these birds. 
