THE PERCHING BIRDS. 77 



for of all our birds, there is no other that takes life 

 so easily. 



Of seven species of swallows, six are found on the 

 eastern side of the continent, and only one of these, 

 the Rough-winged, is not very common and equally 

 widely spread over the country. The Violet-green 

 Swallow is a Pacific coast form. It would be a diffi- 

 cult matter to say of the Martin, Cliff, Barn, White- 

 bellied and Bank Swallows which is the best known. 

 The last two as they dash through the air are one to 

 most people, but no one ever mistakes the martin or 

 the slender fork-tailed barn-swallow. It is not every- 

 where that the cliff-swallow is content to build his 

 curious nests, which look so like squatty bottles with 

 mere apologies of necks. 



Hitherto, we have been considering the birds of 

 trees, of bushes, or of the ground, but now it is liter- 

 ally the birds of the air. A swallow loses its identity 

 when it rests ; even the long rows that we see perched 

 upon the telegraph-wires, although an airy perch, are 

 out of place. Their long slender bodies and pro- 

 jecting wings lose all their grace when the bird is at 

 rest. The short legs fail to easily support the body, 

 and we see helplessness written over them until they 

 launch again into the air, when every forward flight, 

 graceful curve, quick turn, and downward plunge 

 alike exhibit, as we can see nowhere else, the poetry 

 of motion. They twitter as they go, a gladsome, 

 ringing twitter, bespeaking a merry heart ; and this 

 attempt at song has become so inwoven with our 

 summer days that its loss would now be more keenly 

 felt than the happiest efforts of a thrush or the more 

 7* 



