_Hirundo horreorum_, BARTON, Fragments N. H. Penna. 1799, 17.—BAIRD,
Birds N. Am. 1858, 308; Rev. 294.—A. & E. NEWTON, Ibis, 1859, 66
(Sta. Cruz; transient).—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, 13
(Guatemala).—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1864, 173 (City of Mex.)—LAWRENCE,
Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 316 (Panama).—COOPER & SUCKLEY, P. R. R.
Rep. XII, II, 184 (south of Columbia River).—DALL & BANNISTER, 279
(Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 103.—SAMUELS, 254. _Hirundo
rufa_, VIEILL.—CASSIN, Ill.—BREWER, N. Am. Ool. I, 1857, 91, pl.
v, fig. 63-67 (eggs).—CAB. Jour. IV, 1856, 3 (Cuba; spring and
autumn).—REINHARDT, Ibis, 1861, 5 (Greenland; two
specimens).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 328 (Cuba; common).
_Hirundo americana_, WILSON; RICH.; LEMBEYE, Aves de Cuba, 1850,
44, lam. vii, fig. 2. _Hirundo rustica_, AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl.
clxxiii.—IB. Birds Am. I, pl. xlviii.—JONES, Nat. Hist. Bermuda,
34 (Bermudas; Aug. and Sept.).
[Illustration: _Hirundo horreorum._]
SP. CHAR. Tail very deeply forked; outer feathers several inches
longer than the inner, very narrow towards the end. Above glossy blue,
with concealed white in the middle of the back. Throat chestnut; rest
of lower part reddish-white, not conspicuously different. A steel-blue
collar on the upper part of the breast, interrupted in the middle.
Tail-feathers with a white spot near the middle, on the inner web.
Female with the outer tail-feather not quite so long. Length, 6.90
inches; wing, 5.00; tail, 4.50.
HAB. Whole of the United States; north to Fort Rae, Slave Lake;
Greenland; south in winter to Central America and West Indies; Panama
(LAWR.); Plateau of Mexico (breeds, SUMICHRAST); Veragua, Chiriqui
(SALVIN). Not found at Cape St. Lucas. South America?
In young birds, the frontal chestnut band is maller and less distinct.
It is still a question whether a South American resident species (_H.
erythrogaster_) is identical or not. The only two specimens of the
latter (21,007 and 21,008, Vermejo, Feb., 1860; C. Wood) have a very
much less violaceous upper plumage than North American examples, the
blue above having even a greenish tinge. They are moulting,
unfortunately, so that they cannot be satisfactorily compared; except
in the respect pointed out, however, they appear to be identical with
North American examples.
The European _H. rustica_ is perfectly distinct, though closely
allied. It differs essentially from the American _H. horreorum_ in
much longer outer tail-feathers, and in having a very broad,
continuous collar of steel-blue across the jugulum, entirely isolating
the chestnut of the throat; the abdomen appears to be much more
whitish than in the American species.
Many specimens of _H. horreorum_ show a continuous collar, but then
the two lateral crescents are but just barely connected. In No. 2,191
♀, Carlisle, Penn., May, there is an indication of as broad a collar
as in the European species; but the area, though sharply bounded, is
not uniformly black, being much mixed centrally with light rufous.
Specimens of _H. horreorum_ from both coasts of North America appear
to be perfectly identical.
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.
The natural breeding-places of these birds, before the settlement of
the country, were caves, overhanging rocky cliffs, and similar
localities. Swallow Cave, at Nahant, was once a favorite place of
resort, and in the unsettled portions of the country they are only
found in such situations. As the country is settled they forsake these
places for the buildings of the farm, and their numbers rapidly
increase. In the fur countries and in all the Pacific coast, they
still breed in and inhabit caves, chiefly among limestone rocks.
Where the opportunity offers, they prefer to place their nests on the
horizontal rafters of barns. Built in this situation, the nests have
an average height and a breadth of about five inches. The cavity is
two inches deep and three inches wide, at the rim. The nests are
constructed of distinct layers of mud, from ten to twelve in number,
and each separated by strata of fine dry grasses. These layers are
each made up of small pellets of mud, that have been worked over by
the birds and placed one by one in juxtaposition until each layer is
complete. These mud walls are an inch in thickness. When they are
completed, they are warmly stuffed with fine soft grasses and lined
with downy feathers. When built against the side of a house, a strong
foundation of mud is first constructed, upon which the nest is
erected. In this case the nest is much more elongate in shape and more
strongly made.
A striking peculiarity of these nests is frequently an extra platform,
built against, but distinct from the nest itself, designed as a
roosting-place for the parents, used by one during incubation at night
or when not engaged in procuring food, and by both when the young are
large enough to occupy the whole nest. One of these I found to be a
separate structure from the nest, but of similar materials, three
inches in length and one and a half in breadth. This nest had been for
several years occupied by the same pair, though none of their
offspring ever returned to the same roof to breed in their turn. Yet
in some instances as many as fifty pairs have been known to occupy the
rafters of the same barn.
In one instance Mr. Allen has known a pair of these Swallows to take
possession of the nest of a pair of Cliff Swallows, placed under the
eaves of a barn, driving off the rightful owners. The next year they
built a nest in the same place, the old one having fallen down. But
such instances are rare, and the attempt is often a failure.
The wonderful activity of this bird, its rapidity and powers of
flight, are too striking a peculiarity of this species not to be
mentioned. During their stay with us, from May to September, from morn
to night they seem to be ever in motion, especially so before
incubation, or after their young have flown. The rapidity of their
tortuous evolutions, their intricate, involved, and repeated zigzag
flights, are altogether indescribable, and must be witnessed to be
appreciated. Wilson estimated that these birds fly at the rate of a
mile a minute, but any one who has witnessed the ease and celerity
with which they seem to delight in overtaking, passing, and repassing
a train of cars moving at the rate of thirty miles an hour must
realize that this estimate is far from doing full justice to their
real speed.
The song of this Swallow, especially when on the wing, is very
pleasing and sprightly. It is a succession of twittering notes uttered
with great rapidity and animation. When alighted, their notes are
delivered more slowly and with much less animation.
The attention of these birds to each other when sitting upon the nest,
and to their young when hatched, is unremitting. The estimated numbers
of small insects they collect for their own consumption and that of
their nestlings is almost incredible. When the young are old enough to
leave their nests the manœuvres of the parents to draw them out, and
their assistance to them when practising their first short flights,
are among the most curious and interesting scenes one can witness in
his ornithological experiences; but space would fail me were I to
attempt their details.
The number of the young is from four to six, and there are often two
broods in a season. As soon as the second brood can fly, or early in
September, they all prepare to leave. They usually collect in flocks
of from one to several hundred, and depart within a few days of their
first assembling. Large flocks pass along the coast of Massachusetts,
from the north and east, early in September, often uniting as they
meet, and passing rapidly on.
Their eggs have a ground-color of clear white, with a roseate tint
when unblown. They are marked with spots of reddish and
purplish-brown, varying in size and number, and chiefly at the larger
end. They are smaller and more elongate than those of the _lunifrons_,
and the markings are usually finer. Their greatest length is .94 of an
inch, their least .75, and their mean .78. Their mean breadth is .56
of an inch, the greatest .62, and the least .50.