THE PERCHING BIRDS. 83 



almost over. My grandfather has often told me of 

 the day being darkened by wild pigeons, and of 

 ponds " black" with wild ducks, of the air " filled" 

 with geese, and such strange tales even as an orchard 

 red with tanagers. The only approach to all this is 

 an occasional flock of perhaps one thousand black- 

 birds, and even a " cloud" of them of ten times that 

 many birds. But man's interference has not yet 

 extended to the swallows, and they make when 

 opportunity affords a fine showing. Indeed, were it 

 not for this feature of close association they would 

 make no showing at all, for a single swallow is a 

 most insignificant affair. 



Great flights of swallows have been noticed in the 

 valley of the Delaware even in November, after a 

 long interval with no swallows in the air. At such 

 a time they are all beating directly southward, and 

 have a steady, direct flight unlike their summer-day 

 progress when chasing insects as erratic in movement 

 as they themselves are. Are such belated swallows 

 likely to have been driven in-shore by contrary winds 

 caught while wending their way over the ocean ? 



The Rough-winged Swallow is readily recog- 

 nized by its dull-gray throat and the absence of the 

 dark breast-band that characterizes the bank-swallow. 

 The habits of the two are quite the same, except that 

 the rough-wing is sometimes too lazy to build a nest 

 in a bank, but will put up with some nook in an 

 old wall, or covered corner in a bridge, or natural 

 crevice in a rock. Those that I have seen, however, 

 were associated with the foregoing and had nests pre- 

 cisely like them. The two were so intimately asso- 



