EA VE SWALLOW. 8 1 



When not skimming through the air after insects, 

 these swallows are likely to be seen perched in rows 

 on telegraph wires, where 



"They twitter and flutter and fold their wings; 



Perhaps they think that for them and their sires 

 Stretched always, on purpose, those wonderful strings." 



Barn swallows once built in caves, but now univer- 

 sally in barns or old vacant dwellings. The nest is 

 of mud and hay plastered against a rafter, and inside 

 is good soft stuffing of hay and feathers. A perch- 

 ing place is often built near, where the male roosts at 

 night, and to which the young birds take their first 

 outing. The eggs, 4 to 6, are white, thickly spotted 

 with brown. 



Dr. Brewer writes of these Swallows: " There is 

 no evil blended with the many benefits they confer 

 on man; they destroy the insects that annoy his cattle, 

 injure his fruit trees, sting his fruit or molest his 

 person." 



Barn Swallows are noted for their wonderful flights 

 in migration, when it is said they fly fifteen hours a 

 day, and as swiftly as a mile a minute. 



Eave Swallow; Cliff Swallow: Petrochelidon luni- 

 frons. 



Length 6 inches. 



Back and crown steel-blue; forehead whitish; throat and 

 sides of head chestnut: 



Breast brown, a steel-blue patch in center; belly white. 



A light rusty spot oh the rump; tail not forked. 



Resident (rare) from April to September: winters in the 

 tropics. 



The distinguishing mark of this Swallow is the 

 light spot on the rump, and he may readily be known 

 from his neighbor, the Barn Swallow, by his short, 



