226 BARN SWALLOW. 



hair, to make it adhere the better ; the mud seems to have been placed 

 in regular strata, or layers, from side to side ; the hollow of this cone 

 (the shell of which is about an inch in thickness) is filled with fine hay, 

 well stuffed in ; above that is laid a handful of very large downy geese 

 feathers ; the eggs are five, white, speckled and spotted all over with 

 reddish brown. Owing to the semi-transparency of the shell the eggs 

 have a slight tinge of flesh color. The whole weighs about two pounds. 



They have generally two broods in the season. The first make their 

 appearance about the second week in June ; and the last brood leave 

 the nest about the 10th of August. Though it is not uncommon for 

 twenty, and even thirty pair, to build in the same barn, yet everything 

 seems to be conducted with great order and affection ; all seems har- 

 mony among them, as if the interest of each were that of all. Several 

 nests are often within a few inches of each other ; yet no appearance of 

 discord or quarrelling takes place in this peaceful and affectionate com- 

 munity. 



When the young are fit to leave the nest, the old ones entice them 

 out by fluttering backwards and forwards, twittering and calling to 

 them every time they pass ; and the young exercise themselveg, for se- 

 veral days, in short essays of this kind, within doors, before they first 

 venture abroad. As soon as they leave the barn they are conducted by 

 their parents to the trees, or bushes, by the pond, creek, or river shore, 

 or other suitable situation, where their proper food is most abundant, 

 and where they can be fed with the greatest convenience to both par- 

 ties. Now and then they take a short excursion themselves, and are 

 also frequently fed while on wing by an almost instantaneous motion of 

 both parties, rising perpendicularly in air and meeting each other. 

 About the middle of August they seem to begin to prepare for their de- 

 parture. They assemble on the roof in great numbers, dressing and ar- 

 ranging their plumage, and making occasional essays, twittering with 

 great cheerfulness. Their song is a kind of sprightly warble, some- 

 times continued for a considerable .time. From this period to the eighth 

 of September they are seen near the Schuylkill and Delaware, every 

 afternoon, 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 towards the south. The reeds are now their regu- 

 lar 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 peninsula 

 towards the south in September and October ; and also on their return 

 to ihe north about the middle of March. It is highly probable, that 



