BANK SWALLOW 403 



was a young l)ird. * * * The remarkable behavior of the birds which 

 alighted in the road was simply an expression of premature development, in 

 the young, of the instincts and passions of nest-building and procreation. 



Frank Chapman (1900), in his interesting account of the swallows 

 observed at the Hackeiisack marshes in northern New Jersey, records 

 a similar behavior of flocks of yomig swallows. The birds were 

 engaged in picking up bits of dried grass and flying up in the air 

 with it, sometimes carrying it for fifty yards or more. Here also he 

 observed the immature birds attempting the act of copulation. Chap- 

 man agrees with Brewster's conclusion that it represents a "premature 

 exhibition of the procreative and nest-building instincts." 



SpHng. — There are few ornithological experiences that provide a 

 greater thrill than the arrival of the birds in spring. Swallows, 

 like other gregarious birds, attract unusual attention because of 

 their numbers, and this fact coupled with their extraordinary exhi- 

 bitions of flight makes their appearance an event of unusual 

 significance. 



A vivid account of the bank-swallow migrations in the Province 

 of Alberta, Canada, is given in correspondence received from Frank 

 L. Farley. "In company with a companion," he says, "I witnessed 

 a remarkable migration of bank swallows on May 11, 1930, at a point 

 on the Athabaska river, about 125 miles northwest of Edmonton, 

 Alberta. The river here is about 700 feet in width and flows in a 

 northerly direction. Eeaching the stream shortly before noon we 

 camped for lunch. At once our attention was drawn to large num- 

 bers of bank swallows, flying in irregular, zigzag manner, onl}' a 

 foot or two above the surface of the water. Evidently they were 

 feeding on flies and other winged insects, and so intent were they 

 in covering all likely places where food w^ould be found that their 

 progress toward the north was estimated to be at a rate of not more 

 than 5 miles an hour. With the aid of binoculars we found the birds 

 to be in just as great numbers for a mile, both up and down the 

 stream. None were ever noted to reverse their course, and we came to 

 the conclusion that they were migrating, many of them, no doubt to 

 their summer homes on the lower stretches of the ]\Iackenzie Kiver 

 and its many tributaries. A count of this procession was attempted 

 as the birds passed a point in front of our camp, and it was found 

 that about 50 birds was the average for every minute of the three 

 hours we spent at the river, a figure approaching the 9,000 mark 

 during our sojourn. Such a mo^'ement, should it continue unin- 

 terrupted even for one day, would reach enormous proportions." 



The forerunners of the spring migration reach New England about 

 the middle of April, but it is not until the latter part of the month 



