402 
SINGING BIRDS. 
ally two broods in the season, and on the egress of the young 
in the latter end of May the piratical Crows often await their 
opportunity to destroy them as they issue from the nest. In 
rocky countries the birds often take possession of the clefts 
on the banks of rivers for their dwelling, and sometimes they 
content themselves with the holes of trees. 
Their voice is only a low twitter of short lisping notes ; and 
while busily passing backwards and forwards in the air around 
their numerous burrows, they seem at a distance almost similar 
to hiving bees. As they arrive earlier than other species, the 
cold and mrsettled weather often drives them for refuge in 
their holes, where they cluster together for warmth, and have 
thus been found almost reduced to a state of torpidity. Dwel- 
ling thus shut up, they are often troubled with swarms of infest- 
ing insects, resembling fleas, which assemble in great numbers 
around their holes. They begin to depart to the South from 
the close of September to the middle of October. Although 
they avoid dwelling near houses, they do not fly from settled 
vicinities ; and parties of six or more, several miles from their 
nests, have been seen skimming through the streets of adjacent 
villages in the province of Normandy. 
They are found on both sides of North America, from the 
shores of the Atlantic to the borders of the Columbia, and in 
all the intermediate region suited to their manner of breeding. 
According to Audubon, they winter in great numbers in Florida, 
and breed from Labrador to Louisiana. 
If the Bank Swallow was found in Labrador by Audubon it has 
since changed its habitat to the extent of deserting that country, 
for during recent years only one example has been seen on the 
northern side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, though colonies have 
been found on Anticosti and the Magdalen Islands. 
In the Far West these birds range to much higher latitudes, a 
few having been met with along the valley of the Mackenzie 
River. The winter resorts of the species are in South America. 
