336 



NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



swallows. Old barns are sometimes seen with this wise 

 provision, but it is seldom, if ever, found in the new ones 

 that are fast taking their places. ^ 



As the old barns fell to ruin, 



New ones, raised to take tlieir places, 



Lacked the broad and generous slielter 



Which the eaves had once afforded 



To the owners of the mud huts, 



To the swallows of the Saco. 



Weary-winged, from distant Southlands, 

 In the spring have come the swallows, 

 Seeking hopefully their nestings, 

 Seeking eaves and sun-warmed barn sides ; 

 Come and found the crackless clapboards. 

 Come and found ill-odored pigments. 

 Come and found new barns for old ones, 

 Come and found no eaves for shelter, 

 Come with joy and met with sorrow, 

 Seeking vainly for old barn sides 

 Changeless as the cliffs of Paugus. 



Weary-winged, the homeless swallows 

 Flutter on into the darkness — 

 Whither going? That they know not. 

 p.ut 't is certain that the Saco, 

 That the /onely cliffs of Paugus. 

 That the steeps below Chocorua, 

 Do not bear their cosy dwellings. 

 Years ago, on man depending, 

 Mother swallows taught their nestlings 

 Barns alone were made to build on — 

 Barns have failed them, man betrayed them. 

 BoLLES, Chocoma' s Teitaids. 



As well suppose the trees without leaves 

 as the summer air without swallows. Ever 



since of old time the Greeks went round 

 from house to house in spring singing the 



swallow song, these birds have been looked 

 upon as the friends of man, and almost as 

 the very givers of the sunshine. . . . The 

 beautiful swallows, be tender with them, 

 for they symbol all that is best in nature and 

 all that is best in our hearts. 



Jeffries, Field and Hedgerow, p. loo. 



Then out of the high heaven above, at 

 once one hears the happy chorus of the bam 

 swallows; they come rejoicing, their swift 

 wings cleave the blue, they fill the air with 

 woven melody of grace and music. Till 

 late August they remain. Like the martins', 

 their note is pure joy ; there is no coloringof 

 sadness in any sound they make. The sand- 

 piper's note is pensive with all its sweet- 

 ness ; there is a quality of thoughtfulness, 

 as it were, in the voice of the song sparrow ; 

 the robin has many sad cadences ; in the fairy 

 bugling of the oriole there is a triumphant 

 richness, but not such pure delight; the 

 blackbird's call is keen and sweet, but not 

 so glad ; and the bobolink, when he shakes 

 those brilliant jewels of sound from his 

 bright throat, is always the prince of jokers, 

 full of fun, but not so happy as comical. 

 The swallow's twittering seems an expres- 

 sion of unalloyed rapture, — I should select 

 it from the songs of all the birds I know as 

 the voice of unshadowed gladness. 

 Celia Thaxter, All Isla7id Garden, p. 22. 



Fig. 132. Barn 



Swallow's 



Nest 



^ The nest in the margin was taken from such an old 

 barn, with swallow holes in the peak, belonging to Elliott 

 Moore of Worcester, and the swallows have nested in it 

 regularly for many years. Paint and planed lumber are 

 fast making our buildings impossible for swallows. A 

 case has recently come to my knowledge, and they are 

 doubtless numerous, where the nests of a large colony of 

 eave swallows were scraped down in order to paint a barn. 

 They deserted the place and have never returned. It'^vould 

 certainly pay to tack a rough board along under the eaves 

 of barns, to attract colonies of this most valuable bird. 



