44 
HIRUNDO AMERICANA. 
same bird ; I shall therefore take the liberty of con- 
sidering' the present as a separate and distinct species. 
The barn swallow arrives in this part of Pennsylvania 
from the south on the last week in March, or the first 
week in April, and passes on to the north as far, at 
least, as the river St Lawrence. On the east side of 
the great range of the Alleghany, they are dispersed 
very generally over the country, wherever there are 
habitations, even to the summit of high mountains ; 
but, on account of the greater coldness of such situations, 
are usually a week or two later in making their appear- 
ance there. On the 16 th of May, being on a shooting 
expedition on the top of Pocano mountain, North- 
ampton, when the ice on that and on several successive 
mornings was more than a quarter of an inch thick, I 
observed, with surprise, a pair of these swallows which 
had taken up their abode on a miserable cabin there. 
It was then about sunrise, the ground white with hoar 
frost, and the male was twittering on the roof by the 
side of his mate with great sprightliness. The man of 
the house told me that a single pair came regularly 
there every season, and built their nest on a projecting 
beam under the eaves, about six or seven feet from the 
ground. At the bottom of the mountain, in a large 
barn belonging to the tavern there, I counted upwards 
of twentjr nests, all seemingly occupied. In the woods 
they are never met with ; but, as you approach a farm, 
they soon catch the eye, cutting their gambols in the 
air. Scarcely a barn, to which these birds can find 
access, is without them ; and, as public feeling is uni- 
versally in their favour, they are seldom or never 
disturbed. The proprietor of the barn last mentioned, 
a German, assured me, that if a man permitted the 
swallows to be shot, his cows would give bloody milk, 
and also that no barn where swallows frequented would 
ever be struck with lightning; and I nodded assent. 
When the tenets of superstition “ lean to the side of 
humanity,” one can readily respect them. On the west 
side of the Alleghany these birds become more rare. 
