15 A UN SWALLOW. 417 



The Barn Swallow of the United States has hitherto been con- 

 sidered by many writers as the same with the common Chim- 

 ney Swallow of Europe. They differ however considerably, in 

 colour, as well as in habits; the European species having the 

 belly and vent white, the American species those parts of a 

 bright chestnut; the former building in the corners of chimneys, 

 near the top, the latter never in such places; but usually in 

 barns, sheds, and other outhouses, on beams, braces, rafters, &c. 

 It is difficult to reconcile these constant differences of manners 

 and markings in one and the same bird; I shall therefore take 

 the liberty of considering the present as a separate and distinct 

 species. 



The Barn Swallow arrives in this part of Pennsylvania from 

 the south on the last week in March, or the first week in April, 

 and passes on to the north as far, at least, as the river St. Law- 

 rence. On the east side of the great range of the Alleghany, 

 they are dispersed very generally over the country, wherever 

 there are habitations, even to the summit of high mountains; 

 but, on account of the greater coldness of such situations, are usu- 

 ally a week or two later in making their appearance there. On 

 the sixteenth of 1^, being on a shooting expedition on the top 

 of Pocano mountain, Northampton, when the ice on that and 

 on several successive mornings was more than a quarter of an 

 inch thick, I observed with surprise a pair of these Swallows 

 which had taken up their abode on a miserable cabin there. It 

 was then about sun-rise, the ground white with hoar frost, and 

 the male was twittering on the roof by the side of his mate with 

 great sprightliness. The man of the house told me that a single 

 pair came regularly there every season, and built their nest on 

 a projecting beam under the eaves, about six or seven feet from 

 the ground. At the bottom of the mountain, in a large barn 

 belonging to the tavern there, I counted upwards of twenty 

 nests, all seemingly occupied. In the woods they are never met 

 with; but as you approach a farm they soon catch the eye, 

 cutting their gambols in the air. Scarcely a barn, to which these 

 birds can find across, is without thorn; arid as public feeling; is 



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