1907
May & June
(3)
morsel of food was transferred - a pretty sight indeed.
At the time I supposed that this must be the brood reared
in the box on the Ritchie place by on July 11 as I was
crossing the open field there a pair of Tree Swallows swooped
repeatedly at our Irish terrier, "Larry," who accompanied me.
This action was performed precisely as I remember it when
I was a boy and when ten or a dozen pairs of Tree Swallows
used to nest on our place in Cambridge. When their young
were well grown but still in the nest (never, I think,
before they were hatched) the parent birds would always
assail a dog or a cat and even, occasionally, a man or
boy, who appeared in open ground near their nests.
First one and then the other of the mated pair would
dart down on set wings on a steep incline passing within
a foot or less of the intruder's head and snapping their 
bills rapidly producing a dull and rather woodeny clicking
sound inaudible at a greater distance than a few rods.
This was given just as they brushed close over the
head of the man or beast. After passing him the bird
would turn sharply upward, mount into the air to
a height of twenty to thirty feet, wheel in circles
once or twice and then stoop again - I remember
that it took rather steady nerves to await, without
flinching, the swift, downward rush of the angry bird
as it came straight for one's face albeit one knew
by experience that at the last moment the Swallow
would be sure to change the line of its flight
sufficiently to pass just by or rather over one's head.
Whether or not these birds at the Ritchie place
still had young there I do not know. They did not
visit any of the boxes while I was there.