The Birds' Calendar 



the morsels of food scattered on the water and 

 dexterously seized in their flight. This species is 

 easily distinguished from all the others by the 

 peculiar tail, of which the outermost feathers are 

 very much the longest. Sometimes mingled 

 with them are the bank swallows, not steel-blue 

 above, like the barn swallows, but dull brown. 

 None of the swallows have a song, but their 

 feelings effervesce in lively clinking notes that 

 are not unmusical. They are in less need of a 

 song than most other birds, for they can work 

 off their feelings through their dashing and tire- 

 less flight. 



If one were asked to explain in a word the 

 essential fascination of bird-study, he would 

 probably say it is largely comprised in a bird's 

 intensity of life. Even its song finds half the 

 essence of its charm in this. It is manifested 

 not only in its restlessness as it darts from twig 

 to twig, and from tree to tree, not only in its 

 rushing and bewildering flights, coursing hither 

 and thither, or dropping like the eagle and hawk 

 with almost inconceivable rapidity from a dizzy 

 height to the ground, not only in its rapturous 

 song in which it seems to " pour forth its soul 

 in harmony," but even in its quieter moments, 

 as you detect its quick breathing, the keen, 

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