The Barn - swallow 3 7 



noon for two or three hours before sunset, passing along to 

 the south in great numbers, feeding as they skim along. I have 

 counted several hundreds pass within sight in less than a 

 quarter of an hour, all directing their course toward the 

 south. The reeds are now their roosting places, and about 

 the middle of September there is scarcely an individual of 

 them to be seen. 



How far south they continue their route is uncertain; none 

 of them remain in the United States. Mr. Bartram informs 

 me that during his residence in Florida he often saw vast 

 flocks of this and our other Swallows passing from the pen- 

 insula toward the south in September and October, and also 

 on their return to the north about the middle of March. It is 

 highly probable that, were the countries to the south of the 

 Gulf of Mexico visited and explored by a competent naturalist, 

 these regions would be found to be the winter rendezvous of 

 the very birds now before us, and most of our other migra- 

 tory tribes. 



Geographical Distribution 



The Barn-swallow is found throughout North America. It passes 

 the winter in Central and South America. 



