THE SWALLOWS 



193 



Under parts white, with a brown band across the breast. 



Song a sort of giggle — like some little girl's ^Ye know. 



Nests many together in holes in a clay or loamy bank, lined 

 with feathers and straw. Eggs pure white. 



A Citizen of most parts of the world — 

 northerly in summer, southerly in winter. 



A Sky Sweeper. 



" Bankey is a sociable, useful little 

 bird, liviug usually in great colonies. 

 I have seen a hundred of their holes 

 in a single bank, all dug by these 

 industrious little Swallows with no 

 other tools than their feeble beaks 

 and claws. AVhen the 3'oung from 

 these nests are learning to fly the old 

 birds are darting to and fro all day 

 long to teach them how to use their 

 wings, and the bank seems like a 

 bustling village ; every bird has some- 

 thing to do and say, and they always try to do both 

 at once. If any one asks you why House People should 

 love and protect Swallows, even if you have forgotten 

 the names of many of the insects they destroy, remem- 

 ber to answer — ' Swallows eat mosquitoes ! ' " 



Bank Swallow. 



