CLASS AVES: OEDEE PASSEEES. 



iir 



silence and serenity of a moonlight evening. Both sexes 



sing, though the male excels. Its plumage is a modest 



reddish-brown above and a 



whitish-gray beneath — amim- ^' 



icry adapting it to the foliage 



among which it loves to hide 



itself. 



Hirundinidae. — The Swal- 

 lows have long wings, which 

 enable them to be almost con- 

 stantly in flight.* The Barn 

 Swallow is the most common 

 species, and is deservedly a 

 favorite, as there is no evil 

 blended with its many bene- 

 fits. Purely insectivorous, it destroys alike the pests of 

 fruit trees, of cattle, and of man. 



Ampelidae (wax-wings).— The Cedar-lird is noticeable 



Birundo hmreDmm, Bam Swallow. |. 



Mg. m. 



Ampdlis cedrdrum. Cedar-bird, 



for the exquisitely fine and silky 

 texture of its plumage ; its erectile 

 crest; and the remarkable ap- 

 pendages to the shafts of the sec- 

 ondaries (and sometimes to the 

 tail), of a bright vermilion, re- 

 sembling red sealing-wax. It ap- 

 pears in New England about the 

 last of May, in flocks of fifteen or 

 twenty, ridding the orchards of 

 the destructive span-worm and the 

 canker-worm; and then pairing 

 off and nesting late in June or 

 early in July. In return for its 



* The Swallow attains the rate of more than a mile a minute, which, if euBtained 

 during ten hours a day for ten years, the supposed life of the bird, would f*ive over 

 two million miles, or upwards of eighty-seven times the circumference of the globe. 

 —The wide-spread belief that the flying high of swallows indicates settled fair 

 weather, and the flying low foul weather, may have foundation in the barometric 

 changes of the atmosphere, varying the height of the strata of air in which they 

 forage for insects. 



