Swallow, Cliff or Eave 



The Swallows 



Gallant and gay in their doublets gray, 

 All at a flash like the darting of flame, 



Chattering Arabic, African, Indian — 



Certain of springtime, the swallows came! 



Doublets of gray silk and surcoats of purple. 

 And ruffs of russet round each little throat. 



Wearing such garb they had crossed the waters, 

 Mariners sailing with never a boat. 



Edwin Arnold. 



SWALLOW, TREE or WHITE-BELLIED 



These swallows usually announce spring to the people 

 of Boston and its vicinity in the first week of April; but 

 after their arrival they are sometimes obliged, when dis- 

 couraged by the cold, to retreat temporarily southward 

 to a warmer latitude. As our ancestors long since dis- 

 covered this fact in relation to their swallows, they have 

 handed down to us th^j wise proverb that ''One swallow 

 does not make a summer. " 



MiNOT. Land and Game Birds. ^ 



Their predilection for the borders of lakes and ponds 

 led some of the ancient writers to believe that swallows 

 retired to the bottom of the water during the winter; 

 and some fishermen on the coast of the Baltic pretended 

 to have taken them up in their nets in large knots, cUng- 

 ing together by the bills and claws in a state of torpidity. 



Nuttairs Ornithology.^^ 

 149 



