Note 29 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 2)

The Barn Swallows, or House Swallows are those with a furcated tail. They are Linnæus’s Hirundo rustica. I found them in all the parts of North America which I travelled over. They correspond very nearly to the European House Swallow in regard to their colour, however there seems to be a small difference in the note. I took no notice this year when they arrived: but the following year, 1750, I observed them for the first time on the 10th of April (new style); the next day in the morning, I saw great numbers of them sitting on posts and planks, and they were as wet as if they had been just come out of the sea29. They build their nests in houses, and under the roofs on the outside; I likewise found their nests built on mountains and rocks whose top projected beyond the bottom; they build too under the corners of perpendicular rocks; and this shews where the Swallows made their nests, before the Europeans settled and built houses here; for it is well known that the huts of the Indians could not serve the purpose of the Swallows. A very creditable lady and her children told me the following story, assuring me that they were eye-witnesses to it: A couple of Swallows built their nest in the stable belonging to the lady; the female Swallow sat upon the nest, laid eggs in it, and was about to brood them; some days after, the people saw the female still sitting on the eggs: but the male flying about the nest and sometimes settling on a nail, was heard to utter a very plaintive note, which betrayed his uneasiness: on a nearer examination the female was found dead in the nest, and the people flung her away. The male then went to sit upon the eggs, but after being about two hours on them, and thinking the business too troublesome for him, he went out, and returned in the afternoon with another female, which sat upon the eggs, and afterwards fed the young ones, till they were able to provide for themselves. The people differed here in their opinions about the abode of Swallows in winter: most of the Swedes thought that they lay at the bottom of the sea; some, with the English and the French in Canada, thought that they migrate to the southward in autumn, and return in spring. I have likewise been credibly informed in Albany, that they have been found sleeping in deep holes and clefts of rocks, during winter.