BARN SWALLOW. 
419 
order and affection; all seems harmony among them, as if the 
interest of each were that of all. Several nests are often within 
a few inches of each other; yet no appearance of discord or 
quarrelling takes place in this peaceful and affectionate com- 
munity. 
When the young are fit to leave the nest, the old ones entice 
them out by fluttering backwards and forwards, twittering and 
calling to them every time they pass; and the young exercise 
themselves, for several days, in short essays of this kind, within 
doors, before they first venture abroad. As soon as they leave the 
barn they are conducted by their parents to the trees, or bushes, 
by the pond, creek, or river shore, or other suitable situation, 
where their proper food is most abundant, and where they can 
be fed with the greatest convenience to both parties. Now and 
then they take a short excursion themselves, and are also fre- 
quently fed while on wing by an almost instantaneous motion 
of both parties, rising perpendicularly in air and meeting each 
other. About the middle of August they seem to begin to pre- 
pare for their departure. They assemble on the roof in great 
numbers, dressing and arranging their plumage, and making 
occasional essays, twittering with great cheerfulness. Their 
song is a kind of sprightly warble, sometimes continued for a 
considerable time. From this period to the eighth of September 
they are seen near the Schuylkill and Delaware, every afternoon, 
for two or three hours before sun-set, passing along to the south 
in great numbers, feeding as they skim along. I have counted 
several hundreds pass within sight in less than a quarter of an 
hour, all directing their course toAvards the south. The reeds are 
now their regular roosting places; and about the middle of Sep- 
tember there is scarcely an individual of them to be seen. How 
far south they continue their route is uncertain; none of them 
remain in the United States. Mr. Bartram informs me, that 
during his residence in Florida, he often saw vast flocks of this 
and our other Swallows, passing from the peninsula towards the 
south in September and October; and also on their return to the 
north about the middle of March. It is highly probable, that 
