THE DRAWBRIDGE. 275 



boy can tell one when lie sees it ; and when I say that I 

 have seen them in March, year after year, I mean this 

 and nothing more. 



Perhaps the common saying, " one swallow does not 

 make a summer," referred originally to those pioneer 

 birds that come in advance of the main flight, and are 

 often driven away, and sometimes killed, by severe 

 storms that follow their arrival. Bnt this subject need 

 not be pursued further. March swallows were known 

 to Turnbull, and I have seen them. I regret man has 

 yet no means of informing them that to visit New Jer- 

 sey in March, and to tarry until November, is to trans- 

 gress the laws of official ornithology. 



To return to the pretty cliff swallows : their nests, 

 now no longer retort-shape, but each a semi-globular cup 

 of clay, are always on the south side of the barn or bridge ; 

 or, if this is not available, a south-eastern exposure 

 will be accepted, provided the surroundings afford some 

 shelter from wind and rain. While our swallows are 

 somewhat sensitive to cold, none so promptly yield to a 

 " cold snap " as do these cliff-dwellers, or " rocky moun- 

 tain " swallows, as they are usually called in this neigh- 

 borhood. It is for this reason, I think, they so often for- 

 sake, suddenly and permanently, a locality like a bridge 

 or any outbuilding. If a violent storm arises and they 

 are not sufficiently sheltered, they will promptly leave, 

 even when they have young in their nests. I have known 

 this to happen twice, besides the instance to be men- 

 tioned with reference to the drawbridge. In the latter 

 case, a violent storm with wind, on July 3, 1869, so dis- 

 turbed the colony of swallows, which had been here every 



