2i8 BEACH GRASS 



song full of little trills and joyful bubbles of 

 music, at times clear and sparkling, at times ooz- 

 ing and rubbery. Like the music of a brook it 

 flows on indefinitely. At times the old barn is 

 permeated with its melody. Swallows on every 

 rafter and in every cranny and coursing through 

 the air seem filled with the most intense joy of 

 the music. Then all is silent except for the twit- 

 tering of the young; anon the song bursts forth 

 again and swells into a louder chorus and dwin- 

 dles into a soft, low air as if a master leader were 

 swinging his baton. 



Not only do the swallows sing thus in the 

 barns, but as they course the fields or skim the 

 ponds, and perhaps best of all when a group of 

 them welcome the morning sun from a roofside. 

 Our barn swallow is an accomplished singer, and, 

 as a proof that he delights in his own song, he 

 does not limit it to the courtship season but con- 

 tinues it through the arduous time of the rearing 

 of the young and even after the young have left 

 the nest and are abroad. From the first day of 

 his arrival in late April till the end of August 

 and even into September this charming bird sings. 



