THE PERCHING BirpDs, hy! 
for of all our birds, there is no other that takes life 
so easily. 
Of seven species of swallows, six are found on the 
eastern side of the continent, and only one of these, 
the Rough-winged, is not very common and equally 
widely spread over the country. The Violet-green 
Swallow is a Pacific coast form. It would be a diffi- 
cult matter to say of the Martin, Cliff, Barn, White- 
bellied and Bank Swallows which is the best known. 
The last two as they dash through the air are one to 
most people, but no one ever mistakes the martin or 
the slender fork-tailed barn-swallow. It is not every- 
where that the cliff-swallow is content to build his 
curious nests, which look so like squatty bottles with 
mere apologies of necks. 
Hitherto, we have been considering the birds of 
trees, of bushes, or of the ground, but now it is liter- 
ally the birds of the air. A swallow loses its identity 
when it rests ; even the long rows that we see perched 
upon the telegraph-wires, although an airy perch, are 
out of place. Their long slender bodies and pro- 
jecting wings lose all their grace when the bird is at 
rest. The short legs fail to easily support the body, 
and we see helplessness written over them until they 
launch again into the air, when every forward flight, 
graceful curve, quick turn, and downward plunge 
alike exhibit, as we can see nowhere else, the poetry 
of motion. They twitter as they go, a gladsome, 
ringing twitter, bespeaking a merry heart; and this 
attempt at song has become so inwoven with our 
summer days that its loss would now be more keenly 
felt than the happiest efforts of a thrush or the more 
7* 
