I40 Bird - Lore 



fill. Its first appearance, as well as its last in autumn, is usually in the vicinity 

 of .water, and before pairing, the nightly roost of the birds is in the low bushes 

 of some marshv meadow. Two broods are reared in a season, the first nest 

 being built in early May and the second in June, and on two occasions we have 

 had a third nest in our barn in the middle of August. 



The sets of eggs vary from four to half a dozen; the ground 

 The Eggs color is white, and they are thickly spotted with various shades 



of brown. The young birds at first are dull and brownish look- 

 ing, much like Bank Swallows, and even the forked tail is not well developed in 

 the very young. 



During the nesting season the food flight of the Barn Swallow 

 Food is incessant, and, as the birds are of a sociable nature, they often 



go out in groups when in search of food, their happy twittering 

 song when on the wing being one of the sounds we should miss sadly. In addi- 

 tion to killing myriads of mosquitos and their kin, flies are taken, small beetles 

 and several species of winged ants. 



Every one who, on a cloudy day or late in the afternoon, has stood by a mill- 

 pond or other large body of forest water, must have noticed these Swallows 

 skimming low over the water, taking the gnats that swarm there, upon wings 

 that never tire. It was often the habit of boys, idle and worse, to throw sticks 

 and other missiles at these low-flying birds, to see how many they could kill, — 

 this game being played in the nesting as well as the flocking season. This sort 

 of thing is, of course, mere wanton cruelty, as there can be no pretence of eating 

 the birds. Be the cause what it may, this Swallow is decreasing rapidly here in 

 southern Connecticut, and one day this spring, in a drive of twenty miles through 

 the real farming country where there was a fair proportion of old-fashioned 

 weathered barns, I saw only three small colonies of the birds. 



Barn Swallows were also one of the first 'Bonnet Martyrs' among our familiar 

 birds that attracted the attention of bird lovers, more than twenty-five years ago, 

 to the necessity of bird protection. The breast and wings of these beautiful birds 

 were used to such an extent for millinery that an editorial appeared in 'Forest 

 and Stream' entitled 'Spare the Swallows.' This agitation resulted in the organi- 

 zation of the first Audubon Society, in 1886. 



In the latter part of August, the family groups break up and the general 

 flocking begins. From this time on until their final disappearance, the Barn 

 Swallow and his brothers, the Bank and the Tree Swallow, lend 

 Fall Migration life and beauty to the autumn landscape, whether they perch 

 upon wayside wires, pluming themselves, or whether they flock 

 and wheel over sand dunes and meadows, as if preparing for the flight of migra- 

 tion, which, according to my own observation, begins, at least, by daylight. 



The season of the Barn Swallows' disappearance varies doubtless according 

 to season and locality. Mr. Chapman gives October i-io for its time of lea\ang 

 the vicinitv of New York. Here in southern Connecticut we have a good sprink- 



