514 
ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
Table showing the number and kinds of insects, spiders and molluslcs eaten by 
the Swallows — continued. 
Number and Name of Speci¬ 
mens Examined. 
Classification 
OF Food. 
Ratios Represented by Lines. 
“ ■ ' 
7 
14 
Moths.. 
7 
o 
0 
40 
Diptera. 
Of eleven Bam Swal¬ 
lows examined. 
2 
"S 
6 
Beetles. 
HIBli 
1 
4^ 
a 
o 
o 
1 
Dragon-fly. 
■ 
11 
68 
Adult forms. 
1 
2 
TphTiPinmon. 
a 
1 
7 
Diptera. 
One Eave Swallow ex- 
OD 
0 
3 
0 
1 
1 ^ 
Beetles. 
amined. 
1 
O 
O 
! 
12 
Leaf-hoppers. 
1 
27 
Adult forms. 
q 
14 
Eees. 
2 
o 
8 
Tiger-beetles. 
. 
HBBB 
■ 
Of five Purple Martins 
p‘5ramineci.. 
.g 
3 
9 
Breeze-flies. 
3 
0 
O 
O 
6 
Dragon-flies. 
Esa 
1 
3 
Mollusks. 
B 
42 
1 
5 
61. Hirundo erythrogastra horreorum (Bartr.), Coues. barn 
SWALLOW. Group I. Class b. 
The Barn Swallow, familiar as it is in most thickly settled districts, for which 
it has abandoned its native haunts to obtain dryer and securer breeding places, 
nowhere receives that attention and encouragement which it merits. The turn, 
tasty barns, so fast supplanting the old oaken excuses, intentionally exclude the 
Swallow in almost every case; even the projecting rafters under the geneious 
eaves are so smoothly cased as to preclude a foothold for the birds. ^ There is 
nothing out of the way in a tight, tasty barn, but it should make special provis¬ 
ion for both the Barn and Eave Swallows. The trifling litter which they may 
produce in the barn is nothing when compared with the service they render, nor 
the half of what is often freely permitted from poultry. He who excludes 
them because of their twitter must be irritable indeed. Generous swallow-holes 
should be made in the gables. If brackets, designed with a view to their adapta¬ 
bility to birds, were put up under the broad eaves, they would serve the double 
purpose of ornamentation and utility. Robins, Pewees and Chipping Sparrows 
are all learnino- the inaccessibleness of such places to cats and other enemies, oi 
niave found their nests in such situations, and Eave Swallows could certainly 
secure their nests much more readily if such provisions were made.^ 
One great advantage of the Barn Swallow, and of all of them in fact as a 
bird to be encouraged in agricultural districts, is its independence of woodlands 
