. The birds of California : a complete, scientific and popular account of the 580 species and subspecies of birds found in the state. Birds; Birds. themselves of the shelter offered by ranch build- ings. By way of con- trast, I recall a town in western Washington, Hoquiam, where a pair of these swallows had placed their nest under the porch roof of a tailor shop on one of the main streets. This nest held young birds nearly ready to fly on the 30th of August, 1910, and is perhaps one of the latest records known. A via media has been found in California, however, for the Barn Swallow has enthusi
. The birds of California : a complete, scientific and popular account of the 580 species and subspecies of birds found in the state. Birds; Birds. themselves of the shelter offered by ranch build- ings. By way of con- trast, I recall a town in western Washington, Hoquiam, where a pair of these swallows had placed their nest under the porch roof of a tailor shop on one of the main streets. This nest held young birds nearly ready to fly on the 30th of August, 1910, and is perhaps one of the latest records known. A via media has been found in California, however, for the Barn Swallow has enthusias- tically accepted the wooden bridge as his portion. In the San Francisco Bay region, and especially in the San Joaquin Valley, where the country is intersected by a network of drainage or irrigating canals, these birds abound. Al- most every bridge from the least to the greatest is utilized. The smaller one will harbor a pair or two, while the greater may boast a hundred. In nesting, thus, over running water, the birds secure a certain immunity from predatory animals, and they are near their work, for insects abound over these canals. Two broods are reared each season, one in April or May, and another in June or July. At the time of flood water, in early June, there are anxious days for the nesting swallows. I have seen them much agitated on such occasions, as though knowing that danger impended; but a heroic mother will not fail to visit her brood, even though the stringers of the bridge clear the flood by no more than three or four inches. The nest of the Barn Swallow is quadrispherical, or bracket-shaped, with an open top; and it usually depends for its position upon the ad- hesiveness of the mud used in construction. Dr. Brewer says of them: "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 538 Taken in Washington NEST OF BARN SWALLOW Photo by F. S. Merrill. Please note that th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1923
