THE PROCESSION PASSES 95 
Bank Swatitow. Dull brown cloak with band across chest. 
Nests in deep horizontal holes in banks. Comes in April; leaves 
in September and October. Nests like White Breast up to Alaska 
and Labrador. Winters in the tropics. The smallest Swallow. 
CurrF or Eaves Swatitow. Pure white band on forehead. 
Otherwise brightly coloured with steel-blue, chestnut, gray, rusty, 
and white. Where there are no rocky cliffs for its nesting 
colonies, they build under the eaves of barns, etc. Nests in 
North America to Arctic regions. Winters in the tropics. 
“Here you have a short description of four Swallows we 
have seen this afternoon,” said Gray Lady, as Tommy came 
tothe end of the board and only finished by squeezing up 
the letters. ‘There is another Swallow, the big cousin of 
these, called the Purple Martin, with shiny bluish black 
cloak and light underparts. This beautiful Martin has a 
soft, musical voice, and is very sociable and affectionate, 
and even in spring, when the birds have mated, they still 
like to live in colonies and are very good neighbours among 
themselves. They were once plentiful and nested in tree 
holes or houses made purposely for them, but, since the 
English Sparrow has come, it has pushed its way into their 
homes and turned them out, so now they are rare, and 
perhaps you children may never have seen one. 
“There was always a high post with a Martin box hold- 
ing a couple of dozen families up at ‘the General’s’ as far 
back as I first remember, but during our absence no one 
watched to keep the Sparrows out, the Martins left, and 
the house went to decay. Jacob has made a new house, 
and we will not set it up until next Saturday, so that you 
can see how it is divided — a room for each family and too 
high from the ground for cats to reach. We shall keep the 
