340 THE AMERICAN BARN SWALLOW. 
the same, according to age and season; wings and tail blackish, with purplish 
or greenish reflections; tail deeply forked, the outer pair of feathers being from 
one to two inches longer, and the rest graduated; white blotches on inner webs 
(except on middle pair) follow the bifurcation. Jimmature: Forehead and 
throat paler; duller or brownish above; lateral tail-feathers not so long. Length 
about 7.00 (177.8); wing 4.75 (120.6); tail 3.00-4.50 (76.2-114.3); bill from 
nostril .24 (6.1). 
Recognition Marks.—Aérial habit ; rufous of throat and underparts; forked 
tail; nest usually inside the barn. 
Nesting.—WNest: a neat bracket or half-bowl of mud, luxuriously lined with 
grass and feathers, and cemented to a beam of barn or bridge. In Washington 
still nests occasionally in original haunts, viz., cliffs, caves, and crannied sea-walls. 
Eggs: 3-6, of variable shape——oval or elongated; white or pinkish white and 
spotted with cinnamon or umber. Avy. size .76x.55 (19.3x14). Season: last 
week in May and first week in July; two broods. Stehekin, Aug. 10, 1896, 4 eggs. 
General Range.—North America at large. Perhaps the most widely and 
generally distributed of any American bird. Winters in Central and South 
America. 
Range in Washington.—Summer resident of regular occurrence at lower 
levels thruout the State, less common west of the Cascades, more common else- 
where in the older settled valleys. 
Migrations.—S pring: c. May 1st; Yakima County, April 27, 1907; May 3, 
1908. Fall: c. September 1oth; Seattle, September 20, 1907. 
Authorities —Hirundo horeorum Benton, Cooper and Suckley, Rep. Pac. 
1S IRE Syohinys SII, yorin JUNG, tslovoy, joy ale, ADS (CaS IU, Ime IDS ISJo, Tels IDS Sis (SS 
Vo 1, 18; 
Specimens.—Prov. P'. C. E. 
ONE hardly knows what quality to admire most in this boyhood’s and 
life-long friend, the Barn Swallow. All the dear associations of life at the old 
farm come thronging up at sight of him. You think of him somehow as a 
part of the sacred past; yet here he is today as young and as fresh as ever, 
bubbling over with springtime laughter, ready for a frolic over the bee-haunted 
meadows, or willing to settle down on the nearest fence-wire and recount to 
you with sparkling eyes and eloquent gesture the adventures of that glorious 
trip up from Mexico. 
Perhaps it is his childlike enthusiasm which stirs us. He has come many 
a league this morning, yet he dashes in thru the open doors and shouts like a 
boisterous schoolboy, “Here we are, you dear old barn; ar’n’t we glad to get 
back again!” Then it’s out to see the horse-pond; and down the lane where 
the cattle go, with a dip under the bridge and a few turns over the orchard— 
a new purpose, or none, every second—life one full measure of abounding joy! 
Or is it the apotheosis of motion which takes the eye? See them as they 
cast a magic spell over the glowing green of the young alfalfa, winding about 
in the dizzy patterns of a heavenly ballet, or vaulting at a thought to snatch an 
