The Hawkeye Ornithologist and Oot.ogist. 



F>r the Hawkeye 0. and O. 



THE TREE SWALLOW. 

 (Tazh'jcinet t bieolor (Vieill.) ) 



BY OLIYER DAYIE. 



This plain and delicate looking lit- 

 tle Swallow is a common bird 

 throughout North America, breeding 

 from latitude 33 degrees to high Arc- 

 tic regions, many residing the entire 

 year in Mexico, Central America, and 

 in the West Indies. As its specific 

 name, bieolor, implies it is a bird of 

 two colors — greenish-black abov T e 

 and pure white beneath. Tue bird's 

 favorite resorts are in the vicinity of 

 ponds, marshes and rivers. It seems 

 to love the picturesque and beautiful 

 in nature, lingering throughout the 

 long summer months by the margin of 

 rivers, where the music of running 

 waters mingle with the zephyrs that 

 blow and seem to whisper to its 

 young and tell them of a world in 

 whose elements they will soon take 

 wing and soar into boundless space. 

 From morning's dawn until night- 

 fall it may be seen soaring high in 

 air, wheeling and playing in grace- 

 ful evolutions or skimming along the 

 surface of the stream, now and then 

 dipping into th3 rippling waters, 

 then flitting merrily away into the 

 azure sky. 



It dwells along those streams upon 

 whose banks the lofty trunks of trees, 

 with leafless tops, that stand like sen- 

 tinels watching over the lovely 

 scenes which nature's magic hand 

 changes from winter's russet-brown 

 to summer's lively green. Even in its 

 migrations this bird is seldom seen 

 far away from running water. 



In the old excavations made by 

 woodpeckers or in the natural cavi- 

 ties of those weather-beaten trunks it 

 constructs its nest of straws and a 

 thick lining of feathers. These are 

 usually chicken or tame geese feath- 

 ers, carefully gathered from a neigh- 



boring barn-yard. They are laid in 

 the nest so that the tips curl upwards 

 and nearly conceal the eggs. In this 

 warm bed the bird deposits from four 

 to seven pure white eggs, and occa- 

 sionally a nest is found containing nine 

 These measure from 70 to 80 hund- 

 redths of an inch long by 50 to 55 

 hundredths in diameter. 



Mr. Edson A. McMillan informs me 

 that he took from a single nest in 

 regular succession no less than five 

 sets each containing five eggs. This 

 was in the Adirondack Mountain re- 

 gion, beginning with set No. 1 the 

 first part of June. Mr. C. S. Shick of 

 Sea Isle City, N. J., writes that a pair 

 of these birds had taken possession of 

 a box which he had put up in his 

 yard. This seems to be a common 

 occurrence in the Eastern States; the 

 birds forsake their primitive breed- 

 ing places and resort to bird-boxes 

 for that purpose. 



The song of the White-breasted 

 Swallow, as it is often called, seems 

 to be nothing more than a mere chat- 

 ter, and again when heard under fa- 

 vorable circumstances one might im- 

 agine that it somewhat resembles the 

 low warble of the Song Sparrow, as 

 on several occasions I have heard it 

 while at rest on a fence or on tele- 

 graph wires; my presence at the time 

 being unknown to the bird. On ac- 

 count of its musical notes it is called 

 by some the Singing Swallow. 



During the nesting season this 

 Swallow is less gregarious than the 

 Barn Swallow and others, but 

 often associate in large commun- 

 ities in their autumnal gatherings. 

 In many of the islands of the sea its 

 nest is elegantly lined with feathers 

 of the Eider Duck and Herring Gull. 

 The flight of the Swallow is one of 

 its most wonderful powers. An ex- 

 periment to test the speed of the 

 swallow's flight was recently (1887) 

 made at Pavia. Two sitting birds 



