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Science 4 May 1984:
Vol. 224. no. 4648, pp. 518 - 519
DOI: 10.1126/science.224.4648.518
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Articles

Laying Eggs in a Neighbor's Nest: Benefit and Cost of Colonial Nesting in Swallows

CHARLES R. BROWN 1

1 Department of Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544

Intraspecific brood parasitism (laying eggs in another's nest) occurs widely in colonial cliff swallows (Passeriformes: Hirundinidae: Hirundo pyrrhonota). In colonies consisting of more than ten nests, up to 24 percent of the nests were sometimes parasitized by colony members. Laying eggs in a conspecific's nest may be a benefit of coloniality for parasitic individuals and simultaneously may represent a cost to host individuals within the same colony.

Submitted on November 30, 1983
Accepted on March 8, 1984

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)