OF NEW ENGLAND. 147 



tree, as is not unfrequently the case in many other States. 

 The eggs of each set are four or five, average -75 X "55 of an 

 inch, and /ire white, unmarked. Two broods are generally 

 raised. 



(c). The White-bellied Swallows usually announce spring to 

 the people of Boston and the vicinity in the first week of April ; 

 but after their arrival they are sometimes obliged, when dis- 

 couraged by the cold, to retreat temporarily southward to a 

 warmer latitude. As our ancestors long since discovered this 

 fact in relation to their swallows, they have handed down to us 

 the wise proverb that " one swallow does not make a summer." 

 The White-bellied Swallows return to their winter-homes about 

 the middle of September, when all the other swallows have 

 gone (and I have seen them here as late as the twenty-third). 

 They congregate "upon the salt marshes during the latter part 

 of August and first of September, literally by millions ; the air 

 is so completely filled with them that it is almost impossible to 

 discharge a gun without killing some" (Maynard). They may 

 also be seen at that season perched in long lines on fences, 

 ridge-poles, and wires, or slowly moving through the air at a 

 considerable height, generally in large flocks, catching insects 

 as they fly. In spring they travel more often singly, and fly 

 rather indirectly but with great rapidity, no doubt occasionally 

 deviating from their course to seize a passing gnat or fly. 



In summer they are to be found in nearly all the cultivated 

 districts of Massachusetts, and in many of the wild as well as 

 other districts of more northern lands, where, in many places, 

 they retain their primitive habit of nesting in hollow trees, 

 which, says Mr. Maynard, they have also done latety at Ips- 

 wich, in this State. As, however, they are now rather depend- 

 ent upon the nesting-places provided by man, they are perhaps 

 as common in Boston and other cities as in the country, if not 

 more so. They are less locally distributed than other species, 

 and on this account are probably better known. They are, I 

 think, quicker in their motions than the other swallows, and 

 also differ from them in not being colonial, except in their 

 primitive state, though several sometimes occupy apartments 



