GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, OLIVE, AND 

 YELLOWISH OLIVE BIRDS 



Tree Swallow 



(Tacbycineta bicolor) Swallow family 



Called also: WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW 



Length 5 to 6 inches. A little shorter than the English sparrow, 

 but apparently much larger because of its wide wing-spread. 



Male Lustrous dark steel-green above; darker and shading into 

 black on wings and tail, which is forked. Under parts soft 

 white. 



Female Duller than male. 



Range North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. 



Migrations End of March. September or later. Summer resident. 



" The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times: and the turtle and the 

 crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming." Jeremiah, viii. 7. 



The earliest of the family to appear in the spring, the tree 

 swallow comes skimming over the freshly ploughed fields with 

 a wide sweep of the wings, in what appears to be a perfect 

 ecstasy of flight. More shy of the haunts of man, and less gre- 

 garious than its cousins, it is usually to be seen during migration 

 flying low over the marshes, ponds, and streams with a few 

 chosen friends, keeping up an incessant warbling twitter while 

 performing their bewildering and tireless evolutions as they catch 

 their food on the wing. Their white breasts flash in the sun- 

 light, and it is only when they dart near you, and skim close 

 along the surface of the water, that you discover their backs to 

 be not black, but rich, dark green, glossy to iridescence. 



It is probable that these birds keep near the waterways 

 because their favorite insects and wax-berries are more plentiful 

 in such places; but this peculiarity has led many people to the 



169' 



