Nature Bulletin No. 223-A   March 26, 1966
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Seymour Simon, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:THE MARTINS AND THE SWALLOWS

Each spring for many years a pair of Barn Swallows have returned to a 
cup of hardened mud plastered on an overhead beam just inside our 
barn door. Once, the nest was knocked down by an overcurious boy, 
but the swallows rebuilt it with fresh mud pellets interwoven with 
grass -- on the same spot with the same rusty nail as an anchor. From 
April until September they elect themselves members of our family, 
just as they adopted our predecessors who lived there ever since that 
barn was built to stable a team of horses, fifty or more years ago. Since 
time immemorial swallows have cast their lot with man and repay his 
protection by their cheerful twittering, and by gleaning insects from 
his gardens and fields.

All kinds of swallows seem to enjoy flying and spend more time on the 
wing than any other birds. They have slender graceful bodies, long 
tapered wings for swift flight, and all except one have long forked or 
notched tails. Their beaks are short and wide for catching insects on 
the wing. The legs are short and the feet are weak. All except one 
migrate to far South America for the winter.

Six common kinds nest over most of the United States. The largest is 
the Purple Martin of which the male is shining blue-black all over and 
the female brownish with a gray throat. Supposedly, they once nested 
in hollow trees but, long before the coming of white men, the Indians 
made martin nests from empty gourds hung on poles in their gardens 
and corn patches. Now, martins nest almost exclusively in specially 
built "apartment houses" mounted on poles. They boldly attack crows 
and hawks but are often crowded out of their houses by English 
sparrows and starlings.

The Tree Swallows nest in tree holes or in ordinary bird boxes, 
preferably near marshes and ponds. There they skim the surface for 
mosquitoes and other aquatic insects. They occasionally eat seeds and 
berries. The head and back of the adults are metallic greenish black, 
and the breast pure white. This is the swallow which often lines 
telephone wires for miles in late summer before they migrate south.

The Barn Swallow, with it's deeply forked tail, has that well-tailored 
look -- a smooth blue serge tail-coat and a reddish brown vest. 
Formerly they nested in caverns and under overhanging cliffs, but now 
they stick close to man' s barns, bridges, and other buildings. They 
boldly "dive bomb" cats, dogs and people who venture near their 
young as they teach them to fly and feed on the wing.

The Cliff Swallows are better named Eaves Swallows because, 
nowadays, they most commonly build their mud nests in large colonies 
under the eaves of buildings. One barn near Deerfield, Wisconsin, has 
over two thousand nests under its eaves. This is the swallow with a 
square tail. Otherwise it is similar to the barn swallow except that its 
forehead is orange instead of white.

The Bank Swallow and the Rough-winged Swallow are similar in 
habits and appearance. Both are grayish above but the first has a white 
throat and breast crossed by a brownish band, whereas the latter has a 
gray breast. They differ from other swallows by nesting in holes which 
they dig deep into steep sandy banks.

The cigar-shaped Chimney Swift, remarkable for its speed and agility 
in the air, and which glues a nest of twigs on the inside of unused 
chimneys, is not a swallow at all, but a relative of the hummingbirds.

The Martins and the Coys were feudin' fightin' boys -- but the martins 
and the swallows live in peace .