122 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 



the males of several species often arrive a fe^r days 

 earlier than the females. They come to see if the 

 weather and other conditions are favorable for the sea- 

 son's housekeeping. What Avere the understandings 

 between these couples when the gallants started on their 

 long journeys into the seemingly great unknown? 

 Where and how were they to meet ? Was he to return, 

 or was she to follow after a certain time? We only 

 know that unless accident befall one or the other, the 

 pleasant spring days find them together again near their 

 last year's home. That many of the birds do return 

 year after year to their old haunts is a fact too well 

 know^n by those who have observed their habits to 

 require any extended proof. I have known the same 

 pair of robins to make their nest on a beam under a shed 

 during eight or nine consecutive j^ears : how much 

 longer they might have occupied the place is not known, 

 as they returned again to find the shed in ruins, and 

 w^ere obliged to seek other quarters. This pair I could 

 easily identify, as the female bird was partly an albino, 

 having considerable white on the back and in wings and 

 tail. Another robin, that by some mishap had lost a 

 foot, made its appearance in the same yard in the city 

 for two or three years. In many sections perhaps only 

 one barn in half a township will be used by the eave 

 swallows {Petrochelidon lunifrons), but the location 

 once selected, the colony will continue to return to it, 

 sometimes for half a century, or until the building 

 tumbles down with age or undergoes extensive repairs : 

 even then stray birds, singly or in 2)airs, will often be 



