514


ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS.


Table showing the number and kinds of insects, spiders and mollusks eaten
bly
the Swallows - continued.


NUMBER AND NAME OF SPECI-      CLASSIFICATION        RATIOS REPRESENTED BY
LINES.
MENS EXAMINED.              or FOOD.
7      14  Moths ........_
7  e"  40  Diptera...........
Of eleven Barn Swal- 2     *  6  Beetles ...._
lows examined ......
11      68  Adult forms ..............
.1_
1       2  Ichneumon .......
1    e  7  Diptera ...........
One Fave Swallow ex   I       6Bets......
amined.............  1      6   Beetles
I V    12  Leaf-hoppers ..
1      27  Adult forms .    |      _


I   I.
3      14  Bees.
2       8  Tiger
2  e'   2  Butte
Of five Purle Martins    .    9  Breez
examined X


3   V    6   Dragon-flies ...... l_
1        3   Mollusks .........
5       42  | Adult forms ......J
__


61. HiRUNDO ERYTHROGASTRA HORREORUM (BARTR.), COUBS. BARN
SWALLOW. GROUP I. CLASS b.
The Barn Swallow, familiar as it is in most thickly settled districts, for
which
it has abandoned its native haunts to obtain dryer and securer breeding places,
nowhere receives that attention and encouragement which it merits. The trim,
tasty barns, so fast supplanting the old oaken excuses, intentionally exclude
the
Swallow in almost every case; even the projecting rafters under the generous
eaves are so smoothly cased as to preclude a foothold for the birds. There
is
nothing out of the way in a tight, tasty barn, but it should make special
provis-
ion for both the Barn and Eave Swallows. The trifling litter which they may
produce in the barn is nothing when compared with the service they render,
nor
the half of what is often freely permitted from poultry. He who excludes
them because of their twitter must be irritable indeed. Generous swallow-holes
should be made in the gables. If brackets, designed with a view to their
adapta-
bility to birds, were put up under the broad eaves, they would serve the
double
purpose of ornamentation and utility. Robins, Pewees and Chipping Sparrows
are all learning the inaccessibleness of such places to cats and other enemies,
for
I have found their nests in such situations, and Eave Swallows could certainly
secure their nests much more readily if such provisions were made.
One great advantage of the Barn Swallow, and of all of them in fact, as a
bird to be encouraged in agricultural districts, is its independence of woodlands