THE TREE SWALLOW 
By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 33 
She is here, she is here, the Swallow ! 
Fair seasons bringing, fair years to follow ! 
— Greek Swallow Song. 
This bird, known also as White-breasted Swallow, may be easily 
distinguished from his brethren by his dark back, lustrous with glints of 
metallic blue and green, and by the pure white of the under surface 
extending quite up to the bill — a white marking so precise that at a short 
distance the dark head looks like a cap pulled low. The tail is bluntly 
forked, and the sharp-pointed wings exceed it in 
length, this being very noticeable when the bird is at Characteristics 
rest upon a wayside telegraph-wire— his favorite perch. 
As the sight of the Barn Swallow arranging his stucco-work home 
on the rafters is one of the signs of coming summer in the country, 
so the April return of the Tree Swallow is among the first authentic signs 
of spring; for, as it is an insect-eater, it cannot live where it is too cold 
for these winged creatures to flourish. The Phoebe-bird, also a fly- 
catcher, comes in March, it is true, but as it makes its home about barn- 
yards and outbuildings, where manure is stored, it is more sure of its 
food-supply than is the Tree Swallow, which naturally belongs to the 
remoter region of wooded pond-edges, where the frost lingers. 
Time was when the Tree Swallow was evenly distributed through its 
range, which extends northwest as far as Alaska, and could be found 
nesting in the larger part of it ; but now it has become much localized as 
a summer resident on account of the difficulty of finding suitable and un- 
disturbed nesting-places. This swallow’s natural home is a tree-hole, 
but as land comes under cultivation hollow trees quickly disappear, 
except in swampy regions where inaccessibility and the half-rotten con- 
dition of the timber save them from the ax of the covetous lumberman. 
In many places the Tree Swallow, like the Purple 
Martin, will adapt itself to a bird-box, an artificial Adaptability 
hollow in a post, or even an old gourd, such as in 
the South is hung up for the Martins. These hollowed-out and well- 
dried gourds are now being brought into use in the Northern States, and 
appear to be much liked by the birds. They form an excellent substitute 
for the wooden nesting-box, and a picturesque and inexpensive addition 
to the list of artificial nesting-places. 
In July, 1914, Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson found Tree Swallows nesting 
in colonies in crevices of the rocks along the cliffs of the Four Brothers 
Island in Lake Champlain, New York. He also found their nests in 
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