LAND BIRDS. 549 
into immense flocks and prepare for their southward journey, they are 
very fond of the berries of the wax-berry, bay-berry or wax-myrtle (Myrica 
certfera), and along the Atlantic coast may be seen by thousands, in com- 
pany with equal numbers of several other species, alighting on the low 
bushes and gorging themselves with the nutritious berries. In Michigan this 
berry is confined to the immediate shores of the great lakes and appears 
to be abundant only in a few places, so that doubtless most of our swallows 
pass southward without any of this food. It is not improbable, however, 
that they occasionally eat other seeds and berries. Like most other 
swallows this species appears to migrate mainly by day and has the habit 
of gathering in immense flocks for several days before taking its final 
departure. . 
Mr. Bicknell gives the following notes on the song of the Barn Swallow: 
“An almost universal misconception regards the swallows as a tribe of 
songless birds. But the Barn Swallow has as true claims to song as many 
species of long established recognition as song-birds. Its song is a low 
chattering trill, suggestive of that of the Long-billed Marsh Wren, but 
often terminating with a clear liquid note with an accent of interrogation, 
not unlike one of the notes of the Canary. This song is wholly distinct 
from the quick, double-syllabled note which so constrantly escapes the 
bird during flight; nor is it, as may be supposed, produced by the com- 
mingling of the notes of many individuals in a species highly gregarious. 
I have heard it repeated many times from single birds, often when they 
were perched alone on telegraph wires. It is also uttered during flight, 
and continues into August” (Auk, Vol. I, 325). 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Tail deeply forked, the outer feathers very narrow toward the tip and 1.50 to 2 inches 
longer than the middle feathers. 
Adult (sexes nearly alike): Forehead deep rusty or chestnut; rest of upper parts, in- 
cluding wing and tail coverts, deep glossy steel-blue; chin and throat rusty brown or chest- 
nut; sides of neck and breast blue-black or plain black, bounding the chestnut neck at 
the sides and often extending across the breast below it in a collar or breast-band; rest of 
under parts buffy or pale rusty brown, deeper in the male, paler in the female; wings black; 
without white markings; tail black or greenish-black, each feather with a large pure white 
spot on the middle of the inner web; bill black; feet brownish; iris brown. Young: Similar 
to adults, but much paler below, especially on chin and throat; the chestnut forehead 
wanting or indistinct; the upper parts dull black, with little gloss; the tail much less deeply 
forked. 
Length 5.75 to 7.75 inches; wing 4.60 to 4.90; tail 3.70 to 4.10. 
248. Tree Swallow. lIridoprocne bicolor (Vievll.). (614) 
Synonyms: White-breasted Swallow, Blue-backed Swallow, White-bellied Swallow, 
Stump Swallow, Eave Swallow.—Hirundo bicolor, Vieill., 1807.—Tachycineta bicolor, 
Bonap., Allen, A. O. U. Check-list, 1886.—Iridoproene bicolor, Coues, 1882. 
Figures 125, 126. 
Brilliant metallic blue-green above, snow-white below, with dark wings 
and tail, the latter moderately forked. Sexes alike. 
Distribution.—North America at large, breeding from the Fur Countries 
south to New Jersey, the Ohio Valley, Kansas and Colorado, etc.; wintering 
from South Carolina and the Gulf States southward to the West Indies 
and Guatemala. 
