IO4 Birds of Oregon and Washington 



THE WHITE-BELLIED, OR TREE, SWALLOW. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION : 



Upper parts : dark steel-blue. 



Under parts : pure white. 



Length, 6 inches. 



Found about hollow trees in the woods, and particu- 

 larly, in trees about sloughs. 



This is the first Swallow to appear in the 

 spring, and may be seen in scattering numbers 

 early in March, and arrives in this latitude in 

 abundance before April ist. In the East, he, too, 

 comes and asks to share man's home with him, 

 welcoming, as the Violet-green Swallow does 

 here, a bird-house or an opening in the gable 

 or eaves. 



Like his cousins, his former home was en- 

 tirely in the wilds, and, as his name indicates, 

 in the trees of the forest. But here, as in 

 the East, we may at some time expect him 

 often to prefer to share our home, and let us 

 in turn share his beauty of appearance and 

 movement, and also his delight in life, so mani- 

 fest by a constant warbling-twitter while per- 

 forming his bewildering, tireless evolutions on 

 the wing. 



