BARN SWALLOW. 395 



of April. Their northern migration extends to the sources of 

 the Mississippi, the Rocky Mountains, and the fur countries, 

 where, distant from the habitations of man, they inhabit caves, 

 particularly those in the limestone rocks. They retire from 

 Massachusetts about the iSth of September, and are observed 

 in the same month and in October passing over the penin- 

 sula of Florida on their way to tropical America, where they 

 probably pass the winter. I have seen a straggling pair in 

 this vicinity even on the 15 th of October. The fleetness with 

 which they move, and the peculiarity of their insect fare, are 

 circumstances which would impel a prompt transition to more 

 favorable climates. Accidental fits of torpidity, like those 

 which occasionally and transiently take place with the Hum- 

 ming Bird, have undoubtedly happened to Swallows, without 

 proving anything against the general migrating instinct of the 

 species, which as long back as the time of Anacreon has been 

 generally observed. 



Early in May they begin to build against a beam or rafter, 

 usually in the barn. The external and rounding shell is made 

 of pellets of mud tempered with fine hay and rendered more 

 adhesive by the glutinous saliva of the bird ; within is laid a 

 bed of fine hay, and the lining is made of loosely arranged 

 feathers. They have usually two broods in the season, and the 

 last leave the nest about the first week in August. Twenty or 

 thirty nests may sometimes be seen in the same barn, and two 

 or three in a cluster, where each pursues his busy avocation in 

 the most perfect harmony. When the young are fledged, the 

 parents, by their actions and twitterings, entice them out of 

 the nest, to exercise their wings within the barn, where they sit 

 in rows amid the timbers of the roof, or huddle closely to- 

 gether in cool or rainy weather for mutual warmth. At length 

 they venture out with their parents, and, incapable of constant 

 exercise, may now be seen on trees, bushes, or fence-rails, near 

 some pond or creek convenient to their food ; and their diet 

 is disgorged from the stomachs or crops of their attentive 

 parents. When able to provide for themselves, they are still 

 often fed on the wing, without either party alighting ; so aerial 



