Length: About 6 inches; one inch smaller than the barn swallow, and two inches smaller than the martin.
General Appearance: A multi-colored swallow—a sort of combination of barn swallow and martin, with areas and patches of dark blue, chestnut, gray, and white, and bright reddish-brown upper tail-coverts, that differentiate it from the other swallows.
Male and Female: Forehead creamy white, head bluish-black; throat and cheeks reddish-brown; a brownish ring about the neck shading to gray; back bluish-black streaked with white; breast gray with a wash of brown, and a blue-black patch where the throat joins the breast; wings and tail brownish; tail only slightly forked.
Note: A harsher, less musical note than that of the barn swallow and martin.
Habitat: Meadows and marshes. These swallows formerly nested in cliffs; now they build under eaves of buildings.
Nests: Curiously shaped pouches of mud that make one think of protuberant knot-holes, or of flasks made of skin. The nests vary with the shape of the places to which they are fastened. Eave swallows also nest in colonies.
Range: North America. Breed from central Alaska and north-central Canada over nearly all the United States except Florida and the Rio Grande Valley. They probably winter in Brazil and Argentina.
Mr. Forbush writes about the Cliff or Eave Swallow as follows:
“When the first explorers reached the Yellowstone and other western rivers, swallows were found breeding on the precipitous banks. As settlers gradually worked their way westward, the swallows found nesting-places under the eaves of their rough buildings. In these new breeding-places they were better protected from the elements and their enemies than on their native cliffs and so the Cliff Swallow became the Eave Swallow, and, following the settlements, rapidly increased in numbers and worked eastward.”[96] These swallows were very numerous fifty years ago. It is now generally conceded that English sparrows are largely responsible for their decrease. It is greatly to be deplored, for swallows add much to the charm of out-door life, and subtract many annoyances in the form of insect pests, especially flies and mosquitoes.
THE BANK SWALLOW
Swallow Family—Hirundinidæ
Length: A little over 5 inches; the smallest of the six common swallows.
General Appearance: Brownish-gray above; band of same color across breast; throat and under parts white. The gray head and white throat form a cap similar in effect to that of the tree swallow.
Note: A twitter, less pleasing than that of the martin and the barn swallow.
Habitat: Sandy banks of rivers, and shores of lakes.
Nests: In holes made in sand-banks.
Range: North and South America. Breeds from the tree-regions of Alaska and Canada to southern California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, and Virginia. It migrates through Mexico and Central America and probably winters in northern South America to Brazil and Peru.
The ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW resembles the bank swallow so closely that it is difficult to distinguish them, unless one can see the darker breast and throat of the rough-wing and the absence of a dark band across the breast. Upon careful examination of the latter species, each long outer wing-feather is discovered to have a rough saw-tooth edge.
The habits of the birds are similar, though the rough-wings, like phœbes, nest not only in banks, but against stone walls and stone bridges. They have a more restricted range than barn swallows. They breed from southern Canada to northern Florida and southern California, and winter in Mexico and Central America.
THE CHIMNEY SWIFT
Swift Family—Micropodidæ
Length: About 5½ inches; wings nearly 5 inches long.
General Appearance: In the sky, the swift looks unlike any other bird. The wings are long and flap like those of a mechanical toy-bird. The tail appears rounded, not forked, like those of swallows.
Male and Female: Brownish-gray, lighter gray on throat; a black spot before each eye; wings longer than tail; tail short, with ribs of the feathers extending beyond the vanes, giving the effect of sharp needle- or pin-points. The bird has a sooty appearance.
Note: A noisy, incessant twitter.
Flight: Rapid, and seemingly erratic and aimless. Swifts’ wings appear to beat the air alternately. The birds move in great curves, seldom alight, and drop suddenly into chimneys at night or when they wish to enter their nests.
Nest: A wall-pocket, built of sticks glued together and to the wall by a sticky saliva secreted by the swifts. During rainy weather the nest is sometimes loosened, and falls.
Eggs: White, like those of woodpeckers and some others laid in dark places.
Habitat: As swifts secure all of their food while on the wing and seldom alight, they have no habitat except the atmosphere and the hollow trees or chimneys in which they congregate at night, and where they nest. They do not perch on telegraph wires as swallows like to do.
Range: Breed in eastern North America, from southcentral Canada to the Gulf, and westward to the Plains; winter south of the United States.
