OUR HOME BIRDS. 
61 
lake. Now they make a graceful circuit, and again 
come back, as though intending to alight in your 
hand. They chase each other or fly side by side as 
though upon a strife. If a luckless insect is in the 
way, he is picked up in an instant, without in the 
least impeding the flight or disturbing the gambols 
of these gay creatures/ 
“ The barn swallow is first on the list, being per- 
haps the earliest by a week or so ; and our friend 
Wilson says of him : ‘ There are but few persons in 
the United States unacquainted with this gay, inno- 
cent, and active little bird. Indeed, the whole tribe 
are so distinguished from the rest of small birds by 
their sweeping rapidity of flight, their peculiar aerial 
evolutions of wing over our fields and rivers, and 
through our very streets, from morning to night, 
that the light of heaven itself, the sky, the trees, or 
any other common objects of Nature, are not better 
known than the swallows. We' welcome their first 
appearance with delight as the faithful harbingers 
and companions of flowery spring and ruddy sum- 
mer ; and when, after a long frost-bound and boister- 
ous winter, we hear it announced that “ the swallows 
are come/’ what a train of charming ideas are associ- 
ated with the simple tidings V 
“ The barn swallow is seven inches long, steel-blue 
above and light chestnut beneath ; the wings and 
6 
