98 Birds of Oregon and Washington 



grace and poetry of motion imaginable. Flying 

 is marvellous enough ; but floating in air seems 

 fairly miraculous to one who, for the first time, 

 really notices a Swallow glide over a meadow or 

 touch the bosom of a lake, and for a distance 

 make no motion of the wings except as they 

 go with the body in its easy turns. The Swallow 

 is truly the bird of the air, as the Sparrow is the 

 bird of the ground, and the Warbler, the bird of 

 the trees. 



Swallows eat and drink while on the wing. 

 One kind occasionally eats at rest. No one ever 

 saw a swallow chasing insects upon the sand, 

 and not one, perhaps, was ever seen lifting his 

 head toward heaven after dipping his bill into a 

 pool in the road or in a spring. He alights 

 only for rest and for sleep. Nearly all the day, 

 from sun to sun, he darts and gyrates and 

 glides over meadow and pool taking what he 

 needs while in ever graceful motion. 



It is said that Swallows do not sing. Do they 

 not ? Is not their exquisite twitter a song ? that 

 twitter that is so friendly to each other and so 

 charming to man, that it gives the satisfaction 

 of a song. 



