WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



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 nationalities that have grouped 

 the centuries into eras. Even now it is an inhabi- 

 tant of all Europe and eastward to China; of a large 

 part of Africa, especially in winter; and through- 

 out North America, the West Indies, Central Amer- 

 ica, and the northern Andean countries. On both 

 continents its wanderings extend to the extreme 

 north, where, in Alaska, it is one of the common- 

 est summer visitors. So this modest little bird, 

 smallest of its kind, is entitled to our respect as 

 a traveller at least; and, to compare the habits 

 and appearance of the representatives in different 

 portions of the globe of so widely distributed a 

 species, becomes a most interesting study. 



Cotyle riparia, the bank-swallow, sand-martin, 

 sand-swallow, river-swallow, Thirondelle de rivage, 

 or back-svala, is generally diffused over the north- 

 ern hemisphere, though very unequally, avoiding 

 those spots unfavorable to it. In this distribu- 

 tion it seems to have been somewhat influenced 

 by man, though owing him no other favors than 

 the incidental help of railroad cuttings and sand- 

 pits, which have increased the sites suitable for 



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