light-heartedly as though he had not a care 

 in the whole world ? How airily and 

 gracefully he skims along, as though every 

 motion were a delight to him, as it prob- 

 ably is. Don't you remember him ? His 

 very motion is enough to tell you who he 

 is. No other bird flies as lightly as that. 



His brown coat and lighter vest should 

 identify him as well. 



It is barn-swallow. Welcome, gay 

 chatterer. Where is the rest of the noisy 

 colony that chattered under the eaves 

 last spring and plastered the niches with 

 a score of mud houses ? No barn is quite 

 complete or quite country-like without 

 its complement of barn-swallows, darting 

 in and out, and chattering like magpies. 



But while we are talking of chattering, 

 just wait until some warm morning when 

 a flock of about five hundred purple 

 grackles, or blackbirds, as you children 



