olive drab, like that of the female, after the nesting season, 
but you will get to recognise in a short time the size and 
- undulating flight of this species if you are a real student of 
<- DIrds. : | ‘ 
A general rule concerning eolor cannot be given, but 
- when, in the Northwest, one sees a small dark bird with 
power to float through the air, any time from February 1 
September twentieth, or gets glimpses of a color that is 
partly shimmering metallic, one knows that one is looking 
at one of the swallows, and then must look for certain 
oe recognition marks, or listen to their twitterings to help him 
know which bird is near. 
If the prevailing color seems black or brown, with a 
body appearing to end in a line, due to the long deeply cleft 
tail, decide that the bird is a Barn Swallow: but if you get 
glimpses of a white forehead and a short, slightly forked 
tail with these colors you'may recognize the Cliff, or Have 
Swallow. If the lower part of the body appears white, with © 
eyes in this lighter color, that also seems to curl up in front 
of the tail on the back that shows shiny bronze-green or 
purple colors, the bird is the beautiful Northern Violet-green 
Swallow; but if the bird’s back is a dark steel-blue, with 
eyes situated in this color and no white showing above, it 
is a Tree Swallow. | 
Sometimes, in Seattle you may hear the Western 
Martin’s musical twitter as it flies across the hill tops. 
Learn to know this call and the bird as it whirls its deep 
purple-black body from the top of one tall building to 
another, or plays up and down the streets above the city’s 
traffic. His duller, grayer mate sometimes makes her nest 
in niches under the cornices of the tallest buildings where 
she and her family can enjoy high life. Old residents will 
remember a box that was occupied for several seasons by a _ 
pair of these birds on Pioneer Square, before the Totem Pole 
appeared. They are usually seen only in the business 
a 
