September. Previous to tlieir departure they assemble on the buildiDgs, in the evenings 

 and the early morn, filling the air Avith their twitter. The late young are sometimes not 

 ready to undertake their long journey, but the older birds gather round them and actually 

 push them from the building to make them fly, as they seem to fear to trust themselves^ 

 to their wings. 



" Their arrival in spring is always welcomed by the people who live in the Redoubt, 

 while in the fall some will remark : ' It has been some time siuce I saw a Swallow.' 

 Each person fully understood the thought that occupied the other's mind during the 

 momentary silence that followed the remark. It meant that winter Avas near ; how Avill 

 it be, and AA'hat shall we do ? " 



Mr. E. W. Nelson also writes : — ■" Before the advent of the fur-traders these birds 

 nested in the deserted huts of the natives, as, in fact, they do, in many instances, at 

 present, and sometimes tliey even shai'e Avith tlieir OAATiers the summer-houses on the 

 Lower Yukon. On the north coast of Kotzebue Sound, in the autumn of 1881, I found 

 two nests of these birds in a large cleft of the rocks, into Avhich the Avaves beat. Tlieir 

 nests were seen in deserted huts on the same shore. 



" This SAA'allow arrives as soon as mild spring Aveather sets in, generally from the 

 18th to the 23rd of May. The sea is still covered with an unbroken surface of ice as 

 far as the eye can reach, and Avinter appears to be hardly gone when the iirst arrivals 

 reach Saint Michael's and come fluttering about their former nesting-sites. Those 

 Avliose nests Avere in the old outhouses, the Avindows of Avhicli are left open in summer, 

 but are now closed, try vainly to enter and flutter just before the glass, until exhausted 

 and driven to perch on the roofs of the buildings, or upon an adjoining fence. AVithin 

 a few davs thev are seen arlancina; all about the place or G'lidiuir in Avide circles over the 

 broAvn tundra, Avhich at this time is still marked here and there by heavy snow-drifts. 

 Their arrival may be followed by frosty nights, and CA'en snoAV-squalls are by no means 

 rare, while raw misty rains are common. Still the birds appear to endure the unpleasant 

 weather Avithout harm, and shelter themselves in old nests or other places until the sun 

 shines once more. These old nesting-sites are re-occupied after being repaired, mid all 

 manner of sheltering nooks are chosen as building-sites for the new-comers. Usually a 

 number of pairs raise two broods in a season, if autumn does not come too early. A\ luii 

 August arrives young and old are seen sunning themselves in noisy parties upon the 

 loAV roofs of the log-houses, which form a favourite chattering-placc. Day by day passes 

 in teachin"' the vorms- the use of their rmcertain Avinas, and sad Avork some of tlicni 

 make of it at first, affording amusement to the dAvellers of tin- houses. Before hmu'. 

 hoAvever, thev ilv as Avell as th(> old ones, and some fine morning' we waki'to I'nul a lilank 

 in ])lace ol' llu^ vivacious llirouL;-, that, like many another soui-cc of ph'a'~ur(\ is iml fully 

 appreciated until lost. The .sky seems to assume a sadder and more dreary as]u'cl, the 

 brown earth looks duller, and the presence of a gloomy autumn is made nu)re ajipareut 

 by the cheerless silence. Many days shall not ])ass before the snow-ca]i])iMl hill-lops. 

 like the tents along the coast, announce the rapid a})proach of a long wcarisonu' 

 Avintcr. Occasionally a pair lune their unlledged yuuug still in the lu'st, or just com- 



f 1)12 



