﻿FIELD AND FOREST. IO9 



or of the great forests, while their comparative abundance in the vicinity 

 of cities and towns is equally noticeable. How often is this confidence 

 betrayed ? Young America, with his shot-gun, plays sad havoc amongst 

 these tiny songsters; and "children of larger growth" think too often 

 that robins and other small birds will cook up well with their part- 

 ridges. But to return. Before the swallows began roosting in chim- 

 neys, they were much more gregarious. Assembling in great compa- 

 nies to pass the night in mutual protection within the walls of some 

 ancient oak, their actions were interesting to the looker on, when 

 about to enter the tree. 



According to old observers, the birds began to airive in the 

 vicinity of the particular tree long before dusk ; and by the time king 

 night roused himself and had shaken out the folds of his sable mantle • 

 preparatory to its being dropped, an immense number were collected, 

 flying round and chattering incessantly. Then, as mother earth was 

 being environed by nocturnal shades, they would form in a huge liv- 

 ing stream and pour into the hollow. 



The white-bellied swallow ( Tachycinata bicolor) usually occupies 

 an accidental cranny in a tree or a deserted woodpecker's nest during 

 breeding time. Mr. Lord, however, in his work on the "Natural 

 History of Columbia and Vancouver's Island," says: "I am quite 

 sure these swallows dig in a hole in the solid tree, a feat which their 

 soft beaks hardly seem fitted for, inasmuch as I saw one begun and 

 finished." 



Can we believe this statement? If Mr. Lord did not err in his ob- 

 servation, this is a remarkable freak; and would it not imply a corres- 

 ponding increase in the length and strength of the bird's bill which is 

 now, as any one may see by reference to specimens, very short and 

 weak, scarcely strong enough to break through rotten wood ? At all 

 events it is a fact for Darwin. Doubtless he would urge that this 

 incipient tendency would initiate the consequent ulterior hardening 

 and lengthening of the bill, and natural selection doing its work, we 

 should have, in a •'* few years," a swallow metamorphosed into a wood- 

 pecker, — a novel and interesting acquisition to our avi-fauna ! 



The cliff-swallow (Petrochelidon lunifrons) which usually builds its 

 nest on the sides of cliffs and sometimes under the eaves of houses, 

 was observed, in Kansas, keeping company with the bank-swallows 



