Habits. No one of all our North American birds is more widely diffused, more generally abundant, wherever found, or better known, than the graceful and familiar Barn Swallow. And no one is more universally or more deservedly a favorite. Found throughout North America from Florida to Greenland and from ocean to ocean, and breeding nearly throughout the same wide extent, its distribution is universal. Venturing with a confiding trust into our crowded cities, and building their elaborate nests in the porches of the dwellings, as well as entering in greater numbers the barns and farm-buildings of the agriculturists and placing themselves under the protection of man, they rarely fail to win for themselves the interest and good-will they so well deserve. Innocent and blameless in their lives, there is no evil blended with the many benefits they confer on man. They are his ever-constant benefactor and friend, and are never known, even indirectly, to do him any injury. For their daily food, and for that of their offspring, they destroy the insects that annoy his cattle, injure his fruit-trees, sting his fruit, or molest his person. Social, affectionate, and kind in their intercourse with each other; faithful and devoted in the discharge of their conjugal and parental duties; exemplary, watchful, and tender alike to their own family and to all their race; sympathizing and benevolent when their fellows are in any trouble,—these lovely and beautiful birds are bright examples to all, in their blameless and useful lives.
This Swallow passes the winter months in Central and South America as far south as Brazil and Paraguay, and the West Indies, and is found throughout the year in the Plateau of Mexico. It appears in the Southern States in March, and in the Central States early in April. In the latter part of this month it reaches New York and New England, becoming abundant near Boston about the first of May. Sir John Richardson found them breeding as far north as latitude 67° 30′. They reached Fort Chippewyan, latitude 57°, as early as the 15th of May, taking possession of their nests. It has been found throughout Canada and in all the British Provinces, has been met with in New Mexico, and is common in certain portions of Texas and the Indian Territory. Dr. Cooper states it to be less abundant on the Pacific than on the Eastern coast,—a fact attributable to the lack of suitable places in which to build. As settlements have multiplied, these birds have gradually
increased about farms near the coast. In the wild districts they build in the caves that abound in the bluffs along the sea-shore from San Domingo to Columbia River. Dr. Suckley found them also moderately abundant about the basaltic cliffs, near Fort Dalles, Oregon. They are much more abundant about the coast than farther inland.
Mr. Ridgway found this Swallow a very common species in all the rocky localities in the vicinity of water, but not so numerous as the lunifrons.
In May it was particularly numerous in the neighborhood of Pyramid Lake, where its nests were built among the “tufa domes,” attached to the roofs of the caves. It was seldom that more than one or two pairs were found together.
In July he found a nest that contained young, in a cave among the limestone cliffs of the cañons of the East Humboldt Mountains, at an altitude of about eight thousand feet. Many of their nests were found in May, in the caves of the tufa rocks, on the shores of Pyramid Lake, as well as on the islands in the lake.
Mr. Hepburn writes that he found this Swallow widely diffused along the Pacific coast, as far to the north as Sitka. In California he found it very local, common near the coast, rare inland. Its earliest appearance is March 26, the great bulk leave in August, and the last stragglers are gone before the last of September. They breed in caves and crevices of rocks, and also under the sides of the wooden bridges that span the gullies at San Francisco. Two broods are hatched in a year. The earliest egg was found on the 30th of April, but they are usually a fortnight later. The second laying is about the first of July, and no eggs were found later than the 4th of August. It is at all times quite common to find nests with fresh eggs close to others with half-grown young.
Mr. J. K. Lord publishes an interesting account of a visit made by a solitary pair of Barn Swallows to his party when encamped at Schyakwateen, in British Columbia. A small shanty, loosely built of poles, and tightly roofed, was in constant use as a blacksmith’s shop. Early one summer morning late in June, a pair of Swallows perched on the roof of this shed, without exhibiting the slightest fear of the noise made by the bellows or the showers of sparks that flew all around. Presently they entered the house and carefully examined the roof and its supporting poles, twittering to each other all the while in the most excited manner. At length the important question appeared to be settled, and the following day they commenced building on one of the poles immediately over the anvil. Though the hammer was constantly passing close to their structure, these birds kept steadily at their work. In about three days the rough outline of the nest had been constructed. Curious to see from whence they procured their materials, Mr. Lord tracked them to the stream where, on its edge, they worked up the clay and fine sand into a kind of mortar with their beaks. They worked incessantly, and in a few days their nest was finished, the mud walls having
finally been warmly lined with soft dry grasses and the feathers and down of ducks and geese. This trustful pair seemed to know no fear. The narrator often stood on a log to watch them, with his face so near that their feathers frequently brushed against it as they toiled at their work. Soon the nest was completed. Five eggs were laid, which were never left once uncovered until they were hatched, the female sitting the greater part of the time. They were fed with great assiduity by the parents, and grew rapidly. In leaving the nest, two of the young birds fell to the ground, but were picked up by the blacksmith, and placed with the others on their roosting-place. A few days’ training taught them the use of their wings, and they soon after took their departure.
Professor Reinhardt records its occurrence in Greenland, at Fiskenæsset and at Nenontalik.