32 BIRDS OF P. E. ISLAND. 



he is here, sweeping the deep field of the gentle 

 spring sky. How buoyant his flight ! What a 

 grand spirit of strength, and joy, and freedom he 

 seems, as he rushes through the clear heaven, 

 over bay and barren field, shouting a cry of 

 gladness on his arrival in his summer home ! 



These birds congregate in great numbers about 

 mill - ponds or other sheets of water. Their circ- 

 ling and cycling, in spiral and maze, their darting 

 and doubling, now skimming the glassy surface, 

 then shooting upward into the blue sky till lost, 

 like fading stars, on its brow, form the most 

 wonderful and beautiful evolutions ever performed 

 by winged wanderers of the air. They nest in 

 hollow stumps in lonely wood - lands. 'I'he nests 

 are lined with feathers, and contain pure white 



The Eave Swallows (P. lunifrons) build their 

 colonies of mud nests under the eaves of our 

 barns, and 



"The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed" 



is abundant poetry in many of our country dis- 

 tricts. 



The Barn Swallow (H. Jiorreorum)^ with his 

 long, forked tail, is the largest of the group, and 



