And now a public announcement
by Nicholas Kunich
Ladies and gentlemen:
I would like to introduce to you the marvelous and amazing feats of a little thought of but none the less valuable asset to our community.A small animal that often lives near the homes of men. In many distant lands this small creature is known as a Martin, but among the people of the United States, as here on the shores of San Francisco bay we refer to them as Swallows. These useful little birds twitter rather than sing and prefer to spend much of their time flying near the homes of men.
Just twittering around you might say.
Swallows are gregarious by nature, and large numbers of these tiny little birds are usually to be found associating together, in piece and harmony.
These insectivorous birds feed in flight and without a doubt these little creatures have healthy appetites.
Swallows feed mostly on aerial plankton: That is the small insects and other invertebrates which are carried by and feebly move through our atmospheric air currents. To show the astonishing volume of birds’ stomachs, and to reveal the extent to which man is indebted to birds, especially for the destruction of noxious insects the following facts are given: Out of a small number of Swallows taken for the sake of study one specimen was found to contain 40 entire chinch bugs and fragments of many others. (For those of you that do not know; a chinch bug is also known as a bed bug!) Besides and including 10 other species such as spiders and ants walking insects.
Another swallow taken in Taxes had devoured 68 cotton boll weevils and 35 other Swallow specimens removed from the same general area contained 18 boll weevils each.
Now nesting Swallows bring back to their nesting area an astonishing number of insects to feed their young. The birds carry several insects at a time in their throat compressed into a little ball.
Barn swallows may bring up to 400 meals a day to a growing nest of five offspring.
These little birds bring in up to 8000 bugs per nest, per day.
These numbers are much expanded when you think of the nestling period that last up to at least 16 days and may go as far as 24 days. After this period the young birds start out picking up their own share.