A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 60 J 
wings and tail, which is forked. Bill dark; feet black. Female 
more brownish and mottled, below grayish white. 
Song: Very soft and musical, beginning “ peuo-peuo-peuo.” 
Season: Late April to early September. 
Nest: A little heap of leaves; in the East in boxes, but in the West in 
hollow trees. 
Eggs: 4-6, glossy white. 
Without being precisely a common bird, the Purple Martin 
is with us every summer, and its iridescent coat is a familiar 
sight. Its size and color easily separate it from the rest 
of the family, and the sweet song completes the identification. 
A little after dawn, in early May, you may see pairs of 
these Martins hovering in mid-air, half caressing, half quarrel- 
ling, while from time to time you will hear the liquid “ peuo- 
peuo-peuo ” merging into a more throaty ripple, like laughter. 
Barn Swallow : Chelidon erythrogaster. S. R. 
Length: Variable, 6-7 inches. 
Male and Female: Glistening steel-blue back, tail deeply forked. 
Brow and under parts rich buff, which warms almost to brick- 
red on throat. A partial steel-blue collar. Tail shows white 
band from beneath. Female smaller and paler. 
Song: A musical twitter like a rippling, merry laugh — “ Tittle-ittle- 
ittle-ee.” 
Season: April to September. 
N est : A shallow bracket, made of pellets of mud and straw, placed on 
or against rafters, etc. 
Eggs: 4-6, white, curiously spotted with all shades of brown and lilac. 
The Swallows belong to the air, as the Warblers do to the 
trees and the Thrushes to the ground. Swallows, unless 
when gathering before the fall migration, are seldom seen 
perching, except upon telegraph wires, and they leave these 
with such sudden and forking flight that they seem spurred 
by the electric current. If, in the daylight hours, you see 
a bird in rapid but nonchalant pursuit of insects, you may safely 
assume that it is either a Swallow or the Chimney Swift, for 
the Flycatchers have a different flight, the Nighthawk is more 
ponderous, and Whip-poor-wills seldom take to the air be- 
tween dawn and dusk. 
Every child who has lived on a farm or played about a 
barn with an open hayloft knows this Swallow. In spite of its 
beauty of flight and friendliness boys sometimes treat these 
birds cruelly, killing them with sticks or shooting at them 
they flock over the ponds to feed. 
Ed. —39 
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