the hills above tbe cliff iu pursuit of insects, as various localities, though presenting an
absence of timber, were amply covered u ith various flowering plants, upon and about
■which there appeared sufficient numbers of Icpidoptera and orthoptera, furnishing,
perhaps, the principal food of these birds in this portion of the State.”
Dr. Cooper writes:—
“ An abundant species throughout California, and as far north as Columbia River
on the coast. I saw the first of them at San Diego on Alareli lotli, 18C2, and at San
Francisco they arrive about Alarch 25th, being a week earlier thau the Barn-Swallow,
and also remaining later in autumn. I bave seen them as late as October 5th, aud they
probably remain longer towards the south. They live almost everywhere during
summer, except on tbe higli and wooded mountains, building on the cliffs of the sea-
coast, where the cold wind blows, as well as iu the hottest valleys, under eaves of houses,
and sometimes on the sides of large branches or trunks of trees. Their bottle-sliaped
nests of mud, lined with straw, are conspicuous objects wlierever tliey are allowed to
build tliem, some even being visible in the noisy city of San Francisco, which only this
species visits, sweeping through the crowded streets with entire fearlessness. Tiie eggs
are usually four, white, spotted with dusky brown, aud they hatch two broods in tbe
season in most parts of the State. TVTien about tlie nest, they make a creaking noise
very ditierent from the twitter of the Barn-Swallow. In June I saw a flock of these
hirds busily catching young grasshoppers on the dry hill-side, where these insects were
swarming. As I have never heard of other Swallows eating grasshoppers, I suppose that
this species is specially adapted for such food, other insects being very scarce during the
dry season, and in the dry regions it inhabits so frequently, where other species of
Swallows are unknown. Tliis Swallow leaves Santa Cruz about September 1st, but probably
only goes to the large rivers and lakes of the interior. To determine tbe question
as to bed-bugs being brought to houses by these Swallows, I allowed about twelve pairs
to raise broods under the eaves of the house I lived in at Santa Cruz in 186(5. Tluy
built between April 12tb and 2Gtb, and the young were fledged July 1st; some also had
laid new broods of two and tliree eggs by the 5th. On tearing down tlic nests I found
bugs [Cimex) in every one, whatever part of tbe roof it occupied, showing that they were
brought by the birds, none having been observed in the house. But these bugs were
evidently a distinct species from the Cimex lectularius, being different in form, narrower,
and pale yellowish, instead of the cliaraeteristic colour from which the name ‘ Puce ’ is
derived, through the Frcncli name of this insect. Aloreovcr, although many ci’awlcd
into the cracks of the weatlier-boardvS, aud could easily have cntei’cd the low bedroom
windows, none were seen afterwards. So I think we may relieve the Swallow's of the
charge of bringing in these pests, aud encourage their building in suitable places, on
account of the immense numbers of insects they destroy. As usual, their parasites are
jieculiar to them, and may ho called Cimex lunifrontis.”
According to Air. C. II. Tow'iiseud, the species is “ common in Northern California
in certain localities. A moderate number of Cliff-Swallows iubabited some buildings at
tho west base of Mount Shasta in miilsummor, and they were abundant in the cnltivated
rerion about Susanville, Lassen County. They were very rarely seen m the Sacramento
Valiev, and were never found breeding in cliffs or other natural situatmns.
Mr Evermann, in Ids paper on the birds of Ventura County, California, writes :
An abundant summer resident. In 1881, a colony ot more than a hundred pairs
nested in a shod in Santa Paula. The nests wore fastened to tbe rafters, much after the
manner of the Earn-Sivallow. Many iioi-se-hairs were plastered into tho nests, and these
often caused tlie death of the builders. I took from this shed some six or eight dead
birds which I found hanging about the nests, they having got entangled in the hairs.
Air. Belding’s Californian notes are as follows :—
“ V few of tliese birds were occasionally seen at Big Trees in July. It was rare at
Mnrpl.v’s about September 1st, and I did not find it at Stockton on or after September
Gtb It is abundant at both the latter places during the breeding-season. At Stockton
it builds nndor tbo eaves ot buildings; at Murphy’s, in tbe Uinestone boulders exposed
bv minin«. It arrived at Mnrpliy's on March lotli, 1877 ; at Stockton on March lit li,
l'87S; and at Sortli-Amerioaii Hotel on March 12tli. 1878.” The same gentleman
olisei-vos tliat lie saw tho first individual ot this species at San Jose del Cabo, in Lower
California, on the 29tli of April. „ . „
Dr Merrill writes that tho liird was oommon at Fort Klamath m Oregon, nesting
abundantly in the buildings about the Fort; and Mr. Anthony, in his paper on the birds
otlVashiiigton County, Oregon, o b s e r v e s Abundant summer resident. A colony of
about two hundred built at Beaverton this spring, for the first time in the memory of
its inliabitauts.” . .
Tlie late Mr. ,T. K. Lord’s collections from British Columbia contained several specimens
of the Cmr-Swallow, but up to the present time the species lias not been recorded
from Vancouver Island, although, as Dr. Robert Brown says, it ought to occur there.
Of the range of this Fe/roclielidoii iu Central America wo aro still without know-
led..o on many points. Colonel Grayson found the species “ breeding in the liniiks of
tlie"Mazatlan River iu May.” AVe would remark, however, that tlie breeding of tins
Swallow in banks of rivers is nowhere else recorded. Either it has been a misprint for
‘ on ’ the banks, or tbe note refers to Stelgidopteryx and has got misplaced. He says
that it was apparently only a summer visitant, and bo did not observe it during tbe
winter months. As Messrs. Salvin and Godman remark “Mazatlan, therefore may
lie considered tlie extreme soutliern limit of its breeding-qnarters.” Since the above-
named gentlemen wrote in tlieir • Biologia Ceiitrali-Americana,’ tlio speeies has been
obtained bv Mr. Fcrrari-Percz at Acatlan, in the State of Puebla ; iiy Mr. At. Lloyd at
Santana, ¿ear Guadalajara; and by Trujillo, one of Mr. Godnian’s collectors, at
Juaclicngo, in Oaxaca, in April. , nr ii
Air. Gaumer procured a single specimen in the island of Cozumel, and Air. C. 11.
Townsend obtained one at Truxillo, in Honduras, on the 21st of September. Air. Ridgway
records tbe species from Costa Rica, au adult male having been obtained at ban Jose