BARN SWALLOW. 5D 
XY. 
BARN SWALLOW. 
THE barn swallow is the handsomest and best 
known of the swallows. It is lustrous steel blue 
above, and has a partial collar of the same _be- 
tween the deep chocolate of the chin and throat 
and the pale chestnut of the breast. 
What a contrast to the ugly so-called “* chimney 
swallow”! And not in coloring only. Compare 
its long forked tail with the short, square, bristly 
tail of the swift. And then watch its flight — 
the coursing of a Pegasus beside the trotting of a 
racer! The swift has wonderful wing power, but 
no grace. It flies as if under wager, and when 
hunting, its path might be marked off by angles, 
for it zigzags like a bat. But the barn swallow’s 
course is all curves. It has the freest flight of 
any bird I have ever seen. It seems absolutely 
without effort or constraint. 
The swallows are so agile they often dart down 
as you drive along the road, and circle around 
and around you, managing dexterously to keep 
just ahead of the horses. At other times they 
run and circle away over the fields and through 
the sky, and at sunset often haunt our rivers or 
lakes, skimming low over the surface and some- 
times dipping down for a drink as they go. 
At rest, they sit side by side on the ridge-pole 
