128 
The Barn Swallow 
Lessons i 
Flying 
or the parents at least thought so, but the nestlings were perfectly con- 
tent where they were; the table was good and the view unexceptional. 
Coaxing did not avail, so the next day the parents pushed them out 
on the hay, and there they stayed for two days more. But they either 
could not or would not fly. 
The third day, the parents refused to carry food 
for them into the hayloft, but paused on the window- 
sill, where they uttered a lisping chirp, fluttered their 
wings and held out insects temptingly. In this way the young were lured 
up, and finally spent the night on the sill, cuddled together. 
Next morning the youngsters were coaxed to the limbs of a hem- 
lock, the nearest tree to the window, but one that offered perilous perch- 
ing for their weak feet. Two of the four went in the green of the most 
steady branches, but two grasped twigs and swung over, head downward, 
having no strength of grip with which to retain an upright position. 
Under one bird were tiers of soft green branches ; under the other, a 
stone wall. 
The old birds gave a few sibilant twitters and darted almost invisibly 
high. In a few moments the sky was alive with Swallows, which flut- 
tered about the bird that was suspended above the wall. To and fro 
they wheeled, keeping always above the little one, as if to attract its 
attention. The parents stayed nearer, one with a small moth in its beak, 
and seemed to urge an effort to secure it. Still above the wall the little 
bird hung motionless, except that its head was slowly drooping back- 
ward more and more, and the circling birds became more vociferous. 
Suddenly the parent who held the moth alighted on the branch at 
the spot where the bird was clinging, while its mate darted swiftly 
close beneath. Whether the darting bird really pushed the little one up, 
or only made the rush to startle it to sudden action, 
I could not discover, but in a flash the deed was 
accomplished and the bird righted. The visiting 
Swallows wheeled and lisped for a minute, and then were engulfed 
by the sky, as mist in the air blends with the sun-light. 
In the later part of August the family groups break up and a 
general flocking begins. From this time until their final disappearance 
the Barn Swallow and his brothers, the Bank Swallow and the Tree 
Swallow, lend life and beauty to the autumn landscape, whether they 
perch upon wayside wires, pluming themselves, or whether they flock 
and wheel over sand-dunes and meadows. The southward migration is 
made in short stages by daylight, and begins early in October. The 
winter is spent in Central America and Brazil. 
A Thrilling 
Rescue 
Classification and Distribution 
The Barn Swallow belongs to the Order Passeres, Suborder Oscines, and 
Family Hirundinidae , and its scientific name is Hirundo erythrogastra. The species 
ranges in summer over all North America south of western Alaska, Hudson Bay 
and Labrador, breeding throughout this area ; it winters within the tropics. 
This and other Educational Leaflets are for sale, at 5 cents each, by the National Association of 
Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. Lists given on request. 
