SONG-BIRDS. Swallow-

world a class of emigrants whose human prototypes the native American can barely withstand.

Cllfl’ Swallow; Eaves Swallow: Petrochelidon mm- from.

Length .' 6-5.50 inches.

Male and Female: Above brilliant steel-blue ; beneath dusky white. Sides of head, throat and chin rufous. Wings and tail glossed with black. Bill dark ; feet brown. White, crescent-like front- let, hence its specific name lum‘frons, from tuna, the moon, and from, front.

Song : A squeak, more than 3. twitter.

Season x Early April to late August.

Breeds: In colonies, raising two broods a year.

Nest : Either a bracket, or gourdshaped, with the opening at the neck ; of mud, with straws and feather-lined ; placed under eaves or rocky clifis.

Eggs: 4—6, white with brown and purple markings.

Range : North America at large, south in winter to Brazil and Para,-

guay.

This familiar Swallow, which we in the East know as the bird who builds its much—modified, gourd-shaped nest under the eaves of old houses, is in the West wholly a cliff-dweller. With us the shape of the nest depends greatly upon the site chosen, many nests being merely elongated brackets. When it builds under the protection of shelving clifls, the nests are of the typical bottle shape, and are often squeezed as closely together as the cells of a wasp nest.

This species is almost as brilliantly coloured as the Barn Swallow, but lacks the grace in flying which the sharply forked tail gives to the latter. Like all its tribe, it feeds upon insects, which it takes on the wing.

Barn Swallow: Chelidon erythrogaster.

Pure 24. FIG. 2.

Length: Variable, 6~7 inches. Male and Female: Glisuening steel-blue hack, tail deeply forked. Brow and under parts rich bufl, which warms almost to 127