THE BIRD STUDY BOOK 



South. The Blackbirds assemble in flocks and drift 

 aimlessly about the fields. Every evening for weeks 

 they will collect a chattering multitude in the trees of 

 some lawn, or in those skirting a village street, and 

 there at times cause great annoyance to their human 

 neighbours. 



Across the Hudson River from New York, in the 

 Hackensack marshes, behind the Palisades, clouds of 

 Swallows collect in the late summer evenings, and 

 for many days one may see them from the car win- 

 dows as they glide through the upper air or swarm 

 to roost among the rushes. These Swallows and the 

 Blackbirds are getting together before starting on 

 their fall migration. 



In Greensboro, North Carolina, there is a small 

 grove of trees clustered about the courthouse which 

 is a very busy place during the nights of summer. 

 Here, before the first of July, Purple Martins begin 

 to collect of an evening. In companies of hundreds 

 and thousands, they whirl about over the tops of the 

 houses, alight in the trees, and then almost immedi- 

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