i84 SWALLOWS 



being simultaneous, the bird springing up and rush- 

 ing away as from an enemy, and after flying forty or 

 fifty yards dropping down again. 



After seeing this, I began to pay close attention 

 to the other migrants, mostly the small birds, and 

 especially to the swallows, of which we had seven 

 species in the country. Five of the seven were very 

 common, and their habits familiar to me; probably 

 not fewer than fifty pairs of four of the five species 

 bred in or under the eaves of the house and out- 

 houses of my home, and in the trees in the nests of 

 other birds. The fifth species, a small Atticora with 

 the habits of a sand-martin, bred in holes all about 

 the plain, only it did not excavate the holes itself, 

 but took possession of those made by a small mining 

 species, called the " little housekeeper." All these 

 swallows, excepting the tree-martin, which lived in 

 pairs during the breeding season and was after- 

 wards solitary or mixed with swallows of other kinds, 

 had the habit of assembling in numbers previous to 

 migration. The more I watched these birds the more 

 convinced I became that they too, like the upland 

 plover, were subject to a strange disquiet before the 

 time of departure. They kept close and sought the 

 highest places to rest on, especially the large purple 

 martin {Progne)\ these would assemble on the tops 

 of the tallest trees, while the smaller kinds would 

 sit on the fences, roofs and any other elevation. They 

 would rest silent and motionless, as if brooding; then 

 suddenly, with cries of alarm, they would spring 

 into the air as if they had seen a hawk, and after 



