The Tree Swallow Uridoprocne bkolor) 

 By I. N. Mitchell 



Synonym. — White-bellied swallow. 



Description. — Adult Male: Above, lustrous steel-blue or steel-green; below, 

 pure white; lores black; wings and tail black, showing some bluish or greenish 

 luster; tail slightly forked, female: Similar to male, but duller. Immature: 

 Upper parts motise-gray instead of metallic ; below whitish. Length about 6.00 

 ( l.'^2.4) ; wing 4.37 ( 116.1 ) ; tail 2.19 (.^3.6| ; bill from nostril .25 (6.4). 



Recognition Marks. — Aerial habits; steel-blue or greenish above; pure white 

 below. 



Nest. — In holes in trees or, rarely, in bird houses, plentifully lined with soft 

 materials, especiallv feathers. Eggs: 4-6, ])ure white, — pinkish white before re- 

 moval of contents. Av. size, .75 x .54 ( 19.1 x l.v7 ). 



Range : North America at large, breeding from the fur countries south to 

 New Jersev, the Ohio \alley, Kansas, Colorado, etc.; wintering from South 

 Carolina and the Gulf States southward to the West Indies and Guatemala. 



Oue swallow does not make a summer, but a little twittering company of 

 them faring northward makes the heart glad, and tills it with a sense of exultation 

 as it responds to the call of these care-free children of the air. This remark applies 

 to swallows in general, but particularly to tree swallows, for in their immaculate 

 garb of dark blue and white, they seem like crystallization of sky and templed 

 cloud, grown animate with the all-compelling breath of spring. They have about 

 them the marks of high-born quality, wdiich we cannot but admire as they spurn 

 with a wing-stroke the lower strata, and rise to accept we know not what dainties 

 of the upper air. 



The tree swallow is a lover of the water, and in our latitude he is detained 

 for the summer only by the larger bodies, especially the reservoirs. In the summer 

 of 1902 they were found to be very common at the Lewiston Reservoir, where 

 they nested in the numerous stubs, — the water-killed remnants of previous forests. 

 The birds are not themselves able to make excavations in the wood, but they have 

 no difficulty in possessing themselves of other birds' labors. Old holes will do 

 if not too old, but I once knew a pair of these swallows to drive away a pair of 

 flickers from a brand new nesting-hole, and to occupy it themselves. 



Among the writer's earliest oological recollections are those of a little stub 

 sticking out of the muck and saw-grass of an Illinois swamp. A neat-looking 

 hole about eight feet up prompted instant attack. A hand was about to enter 

 the covete.d approach, when crack! went the sturiip, and down went the small boy 

 with the stub on top of him. But the mud was as soft as a feather-bed and my first 

 thought was for the eggs. There they were, four delicate pink beauties, spilled 

 out upon the black mud. but unbroken. The nest cavity was filled within three 

 or four inches of the entrance with chicken feathers, and the sides were lined 

 with them to the very edge of the hole. Taking the least possible toll, one egg, I 



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