LAND BIRDS. 549 



into immense flocks and prepare for their southward journey, they are 

 very fond of the berries of the wax-berry, bay-berry or wax-myrtle (Myrica 

 cerifera), and along the Atlantic coast may be seen by thousands, in com- 

 pany with equal numbers of several other species, alighting on the low 

 bushes and gorging themselves with the nutritious berries. In Michigan this 

 berry is confined to the immediate shores of the great lakes and appears 

 to be abundant only in a few places, so that doubtless most of our swallows 

 pass southward without any of this food. It is not improbable, however, 

 that they occasionally eat other seeds and berries. Like most other 

 swallows this species appears to migrate mainly by day and has the habit 

 of gathering in immense flocks for several days before taking its final 

 departure. 



Mr. Bicknell gives the following notes on the song of the Barn Sw\allow: 

 "An almost universal misconception regards the swallows as a tribe of 

 songless birds. But the Barn Swallow has as true claims to song as many 

 species of long established recognition as song-birds. Its song is a low 

 chattering trill, suggestive of that of the Long-billed Marsh Wren, but 

 often terminating with a clear liquid note with an accent of interrogation, 

 not unlike one of the notes of the Canary. This song is wholly distinct 

 from the quick, double-syllabled note which so constrantly escapes the 

 bird during flight; nor is it, as may be supposed, produced by the com- 

 mingling of the notes of many individuals in a species highly gregarious. 

 I have heard it repeated many times from single birds, often when they 

 were perched alone on telegraph wires. It is also uttered during flight, 

 and continues into August" (Auk, Vol. I, 325). 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Tail deeply forked, the outer feathers very narrow toward the tip and 1.50 to 2 inches 

 longer than the middle feathers. 



Adult (sexes nearly alike): Forehead deep rusty or chestnut; rest of upper parts, in- 

 cluding wing and tail coverts, deep glossy steel-blue; chin and tliroat rusty brown or chest- 

 nut; sides of neck and breast blue-black or plain black, bounding the chestnut neck at 

 the sides and often extending across the breast below it in a collar or breast-band; rest of 

 under joarts buffy or pale rusty brown, deeper in the male, paler in the female; wings black; 

 without white markings; tail black or greenish-black, each feather with a large pure white 

 spot on the middle of the inner web ; bill black ; feet brownish ; iris brown. Young : Similar 

 to adults, but much paler below, especially on chin and throat; the chestnut forehead 

 wanting or indistinct; the upper parts dull black, with little gloss; the tail nuich less deeply 

 forked. 



Lengtli r^.l'j to 7.7.") iiiclu-s; wing kC.O to 4.90; (nil ;{.7() to 1.10. 



248. Tree Swallow. Iridoprocne bicolor {VicilL). (614) 



Synonyms: White-breasted Swallow, Blue-backed Swallow, White-bellied Swallow, 

 Stump Swallow, Eave Swallow.- ITiruudo bicolor, Vieill., 1S07. — Tachycineta bicolor, 

 iiouap., Allen, A. (). V. Chock-list, ISSO. Iridoprocne l)icoior, Coues, 1SS2. 



Figures 125, 126. 



Jirilliant metallic blue-gi-een above, snow-white below, with dark wings 

 and tail, the latter moderately forked. Sexes alike. 



Distribution. — North America at large, In-eeding from the Fur Countries 

 south to New Jersey, the Ohio Valley, Kansas and Colorado, etc. ; wintering 

 from South Carolina and the Culf" States southward to the West Indies 

 and Cuatenuila. 



