396 BULLETIN 179, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The chief danger in the life of the bird is the inclement weather 

 that it may be subjected to during the winter in the Southern States 

 or that it may meet after its arrival on its breeding grounds, as noted 

 under "Spring." 



Fall. — Fall is a season of drama in the tree swallows' yearly cycle. 

 A single idea, or an urge, seems to grip every swallow in the land. 

 The nesting season with its quarrels over, the swallows draw together 

 with a common interest in preparation for their next step, the long 

 migration they will take in companies of hundreds or thousands. 

 In August and September we see them gathering in the great marshes 

 by the sea, where they linger for many days in ever-increasing num- 

 bers, young and old, sometimes associated with other species of 

 swallows, notably the bam swallow. 



The following quotations show the tree swallows gathering in 

 autumn: John Lewis Childs (1900) gives an idea of the great num- 

 ber that collected at Barnegat Bay, N. J., in September, He describes 

 the birds as he saw them flying overhead between their feeding 

 grounds and their night quarters. He says : "Not a Swallow was seen 

 until the solid column of the flight appeared, and it was at once 

 apparent that where there were hundreds two weeks previous there 

 were now thousands. The flight was compact like a swarm of bees 

 and at times almost darkened the sky. Most of the time there were 

 two distinct columns, one flying low just over the water, and the 

 other high up in the air. I watched the flight for hours, and the air 

 in both directions seemed alive with them as far as the eye could 

 reach." Of his observation on the following day, he adds: "After 

 watching the birds nearly all of the forenoon we made a careful 

 estimate of the number that had passed and we calculated that it 

 was not to be reckoned by tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, 

 but by millions." 



Lynds Jones (1910), speaking of tree swallows at Cedar Point on 

 the shore of Lake Erie, in Ohio, says: "After the breeding season, 

 during late July, I have seen great companies gathering to roost in 

 the swamp vegetation east of the mouth of Black Channel. They 

 formed the characteristic funnel group before finally settling into 

 the vegetation for the night." 



Bradford Torrey (1893) describes tree swallows as seen at Ipswich, 

 Mass., in fall. "At eight o'clock," he says, "when we took the strag- 

 gling road out of the hills, a good many — there might be a thousand, 

 I guessed — sat upon the fence wires, as if resting. We walked inland, 

 and on our return, at noon, found, as my notes of the day express 

 it, 'an innumerable host, thousands upon thousands,' about the land- 

 ward side of the dunes. Fences and haycocks were covered. Multi- 

 tudes were on the ground, — in the bed of the road, about the bare 



