BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 345 



into the mud, is now generally abandoned. No doubt many- 

 are found occasionally, on draining mill-ponds, and under cir- 

 cumstances which it is not easy to explain ; but no one pre- 

 tends that one swallow has been reanimated after its submer- 

 sion, nor is there anything in the structure of the bird which 

 authorizes us to suppose that it can live beneath the water. 

 Least of all should we expect any such proceeding from a bird 

 which can fly more than a mile a minute, and in a day or two 

 can reach those regions where the flowers do not wither nor 

 the leaves fall. When they return in the spring, the bank 

 swallows, which pass the winter in Florida, come first ; the 

 white-bellied follows ; next the purple martin ; then the barn 

 swalloAvs ; and last, the chimney swallows. The probability 

 is, that those which are latest in returning, come from the 

 most distant winter quarters, and that the extent of their mi- 

 gration may be determined by the date of their usual reappear- 

 ance in the spring. 



The Cliff Swallow, Hirundo falva. was hardly known to 

 naturalists till within a quarter of a century. The first account 

 of its habits was derived from Long's expedition to the Rocky 

 Mountains. Since that time the whole body have commenced 

 a great system of emigration, moving gradually on towards the 

 Atlantic, till now it is become quite common in many parts of 

 New England. A peculiar sagacity is manifested by this and 

 the chimney swallow. Its wild practice was to build against 

 the sides of cliffs ; but when it comes into civilized life, it 

 builds under eaves and cornices, where its nest is partially 

 sheltered from the rain. The first emigrants who came in- 

 formed the rest of their discovery, and induced the whole tribe 

 to make a radical change in some of the most important habits 

 of their lives. The nest is a large patch of clay mixed with 

 sand, having an entrance near the top, rounded, projecting, and 

 bent downward ; the whole resembling a coarse earthen 

 retort, with the neck broken off, stuck and flattened against the 

 side of the building. The nest has a lining of dry grass and 

 straw, on which are generally four eggs, white, with dusky 

 44 



