46 
HIRUNDO AMERICANA. 
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 frequently 
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 prepare 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 8th of September, they 
are seen near the Schuylkill and Delaware, every 
afternoon, for two or three hours before sunset, 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 towards the south. The reeds 
are now their regular roosting places ; and, about the 
middle of September, 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, were the countries to the 
south of the Gulf of Mexico, and as far south as the 
great river Maranon, visited and explored by a com- 
petent naturalist, these regions would be found to be 
the winter rendezvous of the very birds now before us, 
and most of our other migratory tribes. 
