BANK NOTE ISSUES. See BANKS AND BANKING - BANK NOTE ISSUE'S (article 19).
a small swallow, familiar not only in all parts of America, but in most other countries, for its habit of breed ing in colonies in holes in sand-banks. It is sooty black above, and white on the under surface of the body, with a dusky band across the breast. This swallow comes from its winter home in the tropics, among the earliest birds of spring, and spreads northward even to the borders of the Arctic Ocean. Many, however, remain within the United States, where companies of them seek the banks of streams or exposed cliffs of sand, and bore in close proximity a great number of tunnels, which may be seven or eight feet deep. The bill and feet are both exceedingly weak, yet with these feeble tools each pair, worlang alternately and with great diligence, complete their excavation in a surprisingly short time. The same bank will be occupted year after year. The inner extremity of the tunnel is furnished with a nest of dry grass and feathers, and there are laid in June four or five pure white eggs. The tunnels are used as roosting places at night by both sexes, and when the young are hatched they will scramble to the mouth of the burrow and may be seen sitting there some days before they obtain strength and
c.tourage to launch forth upon their wings. These swallows feed entirely upon small insects caught in the air, and the sight of a crowd of them darting about the neighborhood of their homes, with a constant twittering, is a familiar sight of our country districts. The English sparrows trouble them greatly by seizing upon their burrows and dragging out the furniture; and snakes and mice sometimes enter the holes, but against most enemies these swallows are well protected. Our common species (Clivicola riparia) is also numerous throughout Europe and Asia. Very similar species inhabit the Oriental region and Africa. These birds are well described in all standard works of ornithol ogy, and some special information may be obtained in the 'Monograph of the 1-11run diniclx' by Sharpe and Wyatt • and in 'Bird Watching,' by Edmund Selous (1'901). See Swm.tow.