Sa ES 
BANK-SWALLOWS. 
Tue bird which is the subject of this sketch is familiar 
to all who walk in green pastures and beside still waters ; 
for in such haunts do the bank-swallows congregate in 
merry companies, making up for their want of companion- 
ship with man, which is so characteristic of the other hirun- 
dines, by a large sociability among themselves. Conserva- | 
tor of ancient ways, it is almost the only swallow which has 
not attached itself to humanity as soon as it had opportu- 
nity, and changed from a savage to a civilized bird. Per- 
haps it, too, has tried it long ago, and voluntarily returned 
to the fields; for our bank-swallow is a cosmopolite, and 
has watched the rise and fall of all the dynasties and na- 
tionalities that have grouped the centuries into eras, froin 
Nineveh to San Francisco. Even now it is an inhabitant 
of all Europe and eastward to China; of a large part of 
Africa, especially in winter; and throughout North Amer- 
ica, the West Indies, Central America, and the northern 
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