464 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
about the houses, and several nests containing young nearly ready to 
fly were seen about the main store of the village. 
The extent of the service the swallows render in destroying injurious 
or annoying insects may be suggested by the fact that a colony of 
Map 30. Cliff Swallows 
1. Cliff Swallow 2. Lesser Cliff Swallow 3. Mexican Cliff Swallow 
Shaded areas show general breeding ranges. Triangles mark regional breeding 
or breeding season records 
about eight hundred studied by Mr. Storer had a "forage range” of a 
radius of two miles (1927, p. 107). 
The belief that the birds harbor "parasites which the good house¬ 
keeper fears” is erroneous, their parasites being of a different species 
from the one that afflicts mankind, and one which will live only on 
birds. In order to obtain their services in destroying insect pests, as 
