THE SWALLOWS 95 



graph wires, dashing off for an insect suddenly as if they 

 had received an electric shock. They skim, with much 

 circling, above the meadows and streams in a perfect 

 ecstasy of flight. At a little distance the bird appears to 

 be black above and white below, but as he suddenly wheels 

 past, you see that his coat is a lustrous, dark steel-green. 

 Immature birds are brownish gray. All have white breasts, 

 and are frequently referred to as white-breasted swallows. 



1 As these swallows are the only members of their family 

 to spend the winter in the southeastern United States, they 

 can easily arrive at the North some time before their rela- 

 tives from the tropics overtake them. And they are the 

 last to leave. Myriads remain in the vicinity of New York 

 until the middle of October. There is plenty of time to 

 rear two broods, which accounts for the great size of the 

 flocks. By the Fourth of July the young of the first 

 broods are off hunting for little gauzy-winged insects over 

 the low lands; and about a month later the parents join 

 their flock, bringing with them more youngsters than you 

 could count. They sleep every night in the marshes, 

 clinging to the reeds. 



Like the cUff swallow, the tree swallow is fast losing the 

 right to its name. It takes so kindly to the boxes we set up 

 for martins, bluebirds, and wrens that, where sparrows do 

 not interfere, it now prefers them to the hollow trees, which 

 once were its only shelter. But some tree swallows still 

 cling to old-fashioned ways and at least rest in hollow 

 trees and stumps, even if they do not nest in them. Some 

 day they may become as dependent upon us as the martins 

 and, like them, refuse to nest where boxes are not provided. 



