WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



more striking illustrations of a change in the man- 

 ner of life effected by association with men. Per- 

 haps the most curious example is the case of the 

 eave-swallow (Petrochelidon lunifrons). This bird 

 remained undiscovered until 1820, when it was 

 met with by the celebrated Thomas Say when nat- 

 uralist to Major Long's expedition to the Rocky 

 Mountains, a memento of which remains in the 

 name of one of the loftiest heights of the snowy 

 range Long's Peak. In 1825, however, the bird 

 suddenly appeared at Fort Chippewa, in the fur 

 country, and contentedly built its nest under the 

 eaves. Even earlier it had been seen on the Ohio 

 River, at Whitehall, New York, and very soon 

 after was found breeding in the Green Mountains, 

 in Maine, in New Brunswick, and among the high 

 limestone cliffs of the islands along that precipitous 

 coast. It occurs also westward to the Pacific coast. 

 It is hardly to be supposed that these swallows 

 were indigenous to some restricted locality in the 

 West, whence they suddenly made such a startling 

 exodus; but rather it is believed that they always 

 had existed in isolated spots all over the coun- 

 try, but so far apart and so uncommonly that they 

 were overlooked. 



The experience of the barn-swallow (Chelidon 



211 



