88 BIRDS 



ball, although one swallow does not make a dinner, any 

 more than one fallow makes a summer. 



These sociable birds delight to live in companies, even 

 during the nesting season when most feathered couples, 

 however glad to flock at other times, prefer to be alone. 

 As soon as the young birds can take wing, one family party 

 unites with another, one colony with another, until often 

 enormous numbers assemble in the marshes in August and 

 September. You see them strung like beads along the 

 telegraph wires, perched on the fences, circling over the 

 meadows and ponds, zigzagging across the sky. Millions 

 of swallows have been noted in some of these autumnal 

 flocks. Usually they go to sleep among the reeds and 

 grasses in a favorite marsh where the bands return year 

 after year; but some prefer trees. Comparatively little 

 perching is done except at night, for swallows' feet are very 

 small and weak. 



At sunrise, the birds scatter in small bands to pick up on 

 the wing the long-continued meal, which lasts till late in 

 the afternoon. Those who have gone too far abroad and 

 must travel back to the roost after sundown shoot across 

 the sky with incredible swiftness lest darkness overtake 

 them. Relying upon their speed of flight to carry them 

 beyond the reach of enemies, they migrate boldly by day- 

 light instead of at night as the timid Uttle vireos, warblers, 

 and many other birds do. During every day the swallows 

 are with us they must consume billions of blood-sucking in- 

 sects that would pester other animals besides ourselves. 

 Think of the mosquito bites alone that they prevent! 

 Every one of us is greatly in their debt. 



Male and female swallows are dressed so nearly alike that 

 one must know them very well indeed to tell one from the 



