Bakn Swallow, ( Eirundo erythrogastra). 
Abundant Summer resident. Arrives from April 
25th to May 4th. Breeds, making its nest 
against rafters in barns and other outbuildings. 
Among our birds no species occupy a stronger 
place in my admiration than the Barn Swallow. 
Long before tastes which developed later had 
manifested an existence, the “ Fork- tailed Swal- 
low ” was a well known object to my youthful 
eye. Later in life as I drove the mowing ma- 
chine and hay tedder, scores of them were my 
companions, circling about me hour after hour, 
catcliins' with «" on™ — 
sun 1* uotpuSira umiOJ OU1 
Peculiar Nest of Chelidon erythrogaster.-A nest of the Barn Swallow 
having no mud or dirt in its composition maybe something of a curiosity. 
Such a nest was found by me on Cobb’s Island, Virginia, July 7. 884 , 
under the eaves of the porch of the main house in the settlemer J It was 
rather compactly made up of rootlets and grass, and was thickly lined wit 
downy chicken feathers. It was four and a half inches in diameter an 
one inch in depth. In it were four newly laid eggs. The writer is wholly 
at a loss to account for this departure from the usual style of a ^ chlt " ct “‘ e 
adopted by the Barn Swallow; there was certainly no dearth of mud ou 
of which to construct a nest of the more approved type.-HuGH M. 
Smith, National Museum . , Washington, D. C. 
Auk, 3, April, 1880, p. mi- 
