The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-05-17

this till arrangements are perfected
for the trip TO the far-away south
country.
The Cliff Swallow.
Another member of the swallow
clan, and, next to the sand martin,
perhaps the most common in Utah. is
the caves or cliff swallow. These birds
are fairly numerous in our state, and,
like the bank swallow. bring their
young out from the nesting sites to
find perches on telegraph wires. The
young. thus ranged in long rows. are
in position to be fed TO better advan-
tage
Farther east, in the more thickly set
tied portions of our country-and
where few cliffs are to be found
these birds nest under the caves of
buildings. In this state, though the
caves are somewhat made use of for
building purposes, on account of the
English sparroWs (Which have pos
sessed themselves of every town.,
these swallows more often build in the
cliffs of the mountains, and as a re-
suit men are largely deprived of their
valuable services as insect destrOyers
I have found colonies of caves swal-
lows nesting in the abrupt cliffs at
Echo. on the L. P. railway. at Coal
Vile, on the face of lodges that look
out to the south among the sandstone
cliffs at the farther end of Strawberry
valley; down on the Sewer river. in
Piute county, and in the cliffs over on
the White river. in Uintah county.
The nest of this bird is built of mud
and is retort-shaped, with the opening
usually we'll toward the bottom. The
entrance to the nest is neck shaped
small. and generally drawn out, some
haf aft he Of
These nests are plastered against the
caves of buildings and the smooth
sides of cliffs. often without any part
of the nest touching the roof boards
or rock above. Sometimes they are
attached in such a manner that they
hang from the projection above. as
we'll as from the perpendicular face.
over beyond the Strawberry valley
found nests of these birds hanging
from the underside of a mass of sand
stone which had been weathered into
a wide-spTeading arch-such as sup
ports bridges. In such cases they
build straight down from the base of
the nest; and then, as they draw in
the walls. they also curve them out
and up. and from this part draw out
the bottle-necked opening.
a mark by means of which these
swallows may be readily identified in
the field is the white patch on the
forehead.
The Barn Swallow.
Another we'll known but not nearly
so numerous or widely distributed spe-
cies, is the barn swallow. the bird with
the sharply forked tail In the east
this is the most numerous form. There
they are widely and generally distrib-
uted Here they are not SO numerous
as the preceding form, due, partly,
perhaps, TO the fact that they have SO
long used barns and other buildings
for the nest building that they have
come 10 be somewhat dependent upon
such sites.
In the east usually there are dia-
mOnd-shaped openings in The gable
end of the barns, and through this
opening these aiT-skaters dash i'm the
most reckless manner. Inside they Sc
lect some suitable timber-sOme heavy
beam of the building-and on top of
that they build 1t is a most interest
ing sight to go into one Of these great,
empty barns-fOr they are usually
empty when the swallows build-and
watch these active creatures as they
go about the building, squeaking out
their hopes and feaTs-it may be-to