Part 21

Nesting chambers are in old burrows of Bank Swallows, Kingfishers, rodents, or in crevices remaining subsequent to decomposition of roots of plants; frequently this swallow uses a side chamber off the main tunnel, near the mouth, of a burrow abandoned or still in use by the other species mentioned above.

=Cliff Swallow=: Petrochelidon pyrrhonota pyrrhonota (Vieillot).--This common summer resident occurs wherever suitable sites for nests are found. Temporal occurrence is indicated in Table 14.

Breeding schedule.--The 610 records of breeding span the period May 21 to June 30 (Fig. 6); the modal date for egg-laying is June 5, and 85 per cent of all clutches are laid from May 21 to June 10. Such synchronous breeding activity is probably a function of strong coloniality with attendant "social facilitation" of breeding behavior.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 5 eggs (4.9, 3-7; 7).

Nests are built in mud jugs plastered to vertical rock faces, bridges, culverts, and buildings from a few feet to more than 100 feet above the ground.

=Barn Swallow=: Hirundo rustica erythrogaster Boddaert.--This summer resident is common in most habitats, occurring chiefly about cultivated fields and pastures. Temporal occurrence is indicated in Table 14.

Breeding schedule.--Sixty-three records of breeding in northern Kansas span the period May 1 to July 31 (Fig. 6); the modal date for completion of first clutches is May 25, and that for the second is July 5. The schedule of breeding in southern Kansas (chiefly Cowley County), to judge by 41 records, conforms to the one for northern Kansas: the season spans the period May 1 to August 10, and the modal date for first clutches is May 15. The ten-day lag in peak of first clutches of the northern over the southern sample is about what would be expected on the basis of differential inception of the biological growing season from south to north each spring.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size does not vary geographically, to judge only from the present samples, and all are included in the listing to follow. The modal size of clutches is 5 eggs (4.7, 3-7; 43); clutches from the period May 1 to 30 show an average of 5.0 eggs, from June 1 to 20 an average of 4.9 eggs, and from June 21 to August 10, 4.4 eggs.

Nests are usually placed on horizontal surfaces in barns, sheds, or other such structures; more rarely they are put on bridges, and less frequently yet on vertical walls of culverts or sheds.

=Purple Martin=: Progne subis subis (Linnaeus).--This summer resident is common in the east but rare in the west. The only documented colony west of the 99th meridian was in Oberlin, Decatur County (Wolfe, 1961), occupied some 50 years ago. Temporal occurrence is indicated in Table 14.

Breeding schedule.--The breeding season spans the period May 11 to June 20 (Fig. 6); the modal date of egg-laying is June 5, and 57 per cent of all clutches are laid in the period June 1 to 10.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 5 eggs (4.2, 3-6; 33). Mean clutch-size is 4.3 eggs in May and 4.2 in June. Adults tend to lay clutches of 5 eggs and first-year birds clutches of 4. Replacement clutches by birds of any age tend to be of 3 eggs.

Nests are built of sticks and mud placed in cavities; in Kansas these are almost always in colony houses erected by man. Use of holes and crevices in old buildings is known to have occurred on the campus of The University of Kansas in the nineteen thirties (W. S. Long, 1936, MS), in Oberlin, Decatur County in 1908-1914 (Wolfe, loc. cit.), and presently in Ottawa, Franklin County (Hardy, 1961).

=Blue Jay=: Cyanocitta cristata bromia Oberholser.--This resident is common throughout Kansas in woodland habitats. Most first-year birds move south in winter, but adults tend to be strictly permanent residents. Groups of ten to more than 50 individuals can be seen moving south in October and north in April. All individuals taken from such mobile groups are in first-year feather.

Breeding schedule.--Eighty-three records of breeding span the period April 10 to July 10 (Fig. 7); the modal date of egg-laying is May 15, and about 50 per cent of all clutches are laid in the period May 11-31. Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 4 eggs (4.1, 3-6; 15).

Nests are placed from eight to 70 feet high (averaging 24 feet) in forks, crotches, and on horizontal limbs of elm, maple, osage orange, cottonwood, and ash.

=Black-billed Magpie=: Pica pica hudsonia (Sabine).--This resident is common in western Kansas, along riparian groves and woodland edge. Records of nesting are from as far east as Clay County. Wolfe (1961) outlines the history of magpies in Decatur County as follows: the species was purported to have appeared in rural districts near Oberlin in 1918, but Wolfe saw the birds only by 1921, at which time he also found the first (used) nests. The first reported occupied nest was one in Hamilton County in 1925 (Linsdale, 1926). Earlier records, chiefly of occurrence in winter, can be found in Goss (1891).

Breeding schedule.--Fourteen records of breeding span the period April 11 to June 20; the modal date for egg-laying is May 15.

Number of eggs.--There are no data on clutch-size in Kansas; elsewhere Black-billed Magpies lay 3 to 9 eggs, and clutches of 7 are found most frequently (Linsdale, 1937:104).

Nests are placed from 10 to 18 feet high (averaging 13 feet) in forks or lateral masses of branches in cottonwood, box elder, ash, and willow.

=White-necked Raven=: Corvus cryptoleucus Couch.--This summer resident is common in western Kansas, probably occupying locally favorable sites in prairie grassland and woodland edge west of a line from Smith to Seward counties. The species is known to nest in Cheyenne, Sherman, and Finney counties.

Breeding schedule.--There are few data from Kansas; Aldous (1942) states that the birds begin activities leading to building sometime in April in Oklahoma; the peak of egg-laying probably occurs in May, which coincides with the records from Kansas.

Number of eggs.--Outside Kansas, this species lays 3 to 7 eggs; these figures seem applicable to Kansas, where brood sizes are known to run from 1 to 7 young.

Nests are placed about 20 feet high in cottonwood and other trees.

=Common Crow=: Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos Brehm.--This resident is common in most of Kansas, but numbers are lower in the west. Distribution in the breeding season is west at least to Cheyenne, Logan, and Meade counties.

Breeding schedule.--Sixty-nine records of breeding span the period March 10 to May 31 (Fig. 7); the modal date for egg-laying is April 5, and 60 per cent of all eggs are laid between March 21 and April 10.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 4 eggs (4.2, 3-5; 19).

Nests are placed about 20 feet high in crotches near trunks or heavy branches of such trees as red cedar, elm, oak, osage orange, cottonwood, honey locust, box elder, and pine.