CHAPTER XXXVI. 



August 27 September 3. 



THE BARN SWALLOW. 



Order Passeres Suborder Oscines 



Family Hirundinidae Genus Ghelidon 



Species Chelidon erythrogaster. 

 Length 5.75 to 7.75 ; wing, 4.60 to 4.90 ; tail, 3.70 to 4.10. 



Migration North, April; south, August. 



"Hurrah, the swallow, the swallow is come, 

 Bringing the spring from his southern home. 



The beautiful hours, the beautiful year! 

 Hurrah, the swallow is back from his flight, 

 With his back of jet and his breast of white, 



The summer's earliest harbinger!" 



The barn swallow is a full cousin of the blue martin and 

 the handsomest member of the family. The bill of the adult male is 

 short, very weak, broad at the base and suddenly compressed 

 at the tip ; gape very wide ; iris of eye, dark hazel ; color 

 above of a steel blue, with concealed white in the 

 middle of the back, chin and breast ; wings long, narrow, acute 

 and strong, thus enabling it to fly almost constantly with an 

 easy skimming motion ; tail deeply and evenly forked with the 

 two outer feathers nearly double the length of the others, and 

 it is used to great advantage as a rudder in directing its flight ; 

 underneath the plumage is a bright chestnut brown and bril- 

 liant buff that glistens in the sunlight; spots of white on the 

 inner web of all the tail feathers, except the inner pair; legs 



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