460 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
West Indies and winters from southern Mexico through Central and South America 
to Brazil, northern Argentina, and central Chile. 
State Records. —Few birds have a wider distribution in New Mexico during the 
breeding season than the Barn Swallow. It seems to be equally at home in the val¬ 
leys, on the plains, and in the mountains, 
wherever buildings furnish its favorite 
nesting sites. It nestB up to an altitude 
of 7,000 feet at Taos (Bailey); to the same 
altitude at Fort Wingate (Fisher); and to 
8,000 feet at Hails Peak (Barber); it also 
nests in the lowest and hottest parts of the 
State, as at Mesilla, 3,800 feet (Merrill); 
and Carlsbad, 3,100 feet (Bailey). It was 
nesting May 5, 1009, at Doming (Rock- 
hill) ; was beginning to build May 20, 1903, 
at Santa Rosa, and was still feeding young 
out of the nest, August 9,1904, at 8,200 feet 
along the Hondo (Bailey). [In Santa Fe, 
where it is common, fresh sets arc found 
June 1-July 1 (Jensen, 1923). It was com¬ 
mon June 16-21, 1918, in the Pecos Valley, 
from Roswell to Fort Sumner, nesting 
about buildings (Ligon).] 
In the fall migration, it is one of the 
later swallows to remain in the State; it was 
common on the Pecos, at 7,200 feet and 
around old Bernal and Tecolote, August 28, 
1903 (Bailey); a few were seen at Cimarron, 
August 29, 1913 (Ivalmbach); and it is 
still common in September, though the bulk 
leave the latter part of that month. It 
was still present September 30, 1902, at Santa Rosa (Gaut); one was seen September 
29, 1906, at Punta Malpais (Bailey); [one was seen, October 3, 1916, atZuni (Skin¬ 
ner)]; and the last was seen October 5, 1913, at Mesilla (Merrill); and October 13, 
1907, near the head of the Mimbres (Bergtold). 
The first was seen at State College in 1915 on April 2 (Merrill); at Chloride in 
1914 on April 3 (Ligon); at Albuquerque in 1914 on April 5 (Morley); at Silver 
City in 1884 on April 7 (Marsh); at East Las Vegas, April 20, 1902 (Atkins); and at 
Santa Fe, May 6, 1903 (Merriam).—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —A wall pocket made of pellets of mud mixed with straws or long horse¬ 
hairs and lined with feathers, attached to the wall of a cave or to timbers in barns or 
other buildings. Eggs: 3 to 5, white, speckled with brown and lavender. 
Food. —Almost wholly insects, including cotton boll weevils, rice weevils, about 
80 species of beetles, most of them harmful and some exceedingly so, ants (one 
stomach contained about 1,000), leaf bugs and hoppers, plant lice, and chinch bugs. 
Flies make up more than onc-third of the total food, most of them related to the house 
fly; but they also eat craneflies, horseflies, and robber flies, which are said to destroy 
honey bees. 
General Habits. —The familiar and useful Barn Swallow with its 
steel-blue upperparts and tawny underparts, is often seen circling about 
