Identifier: birdneighborsint00blacha (find matches)
Title: Bird neighbors : an introductory acquaintance with one hundred and fifty birds commonly found in the gardens, meadows, and woods about our homes
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Blanchan, Neltje, 1865-1918
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York : Doubleday & McClure
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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accomplishes anend to be desired by the cleverest bird ; its presence is almostnever suspected by the passer-by, and its grassy nest on a tree-branch, containing three or four pale bluish-white eggs, is neverbetrayed by look or sign to the marauding small boy. Barn Swallow (Chelidon erythrogaster) Swallow family Length—6.5 to 7 inches. A trifle larger than the English sparrow.Apparently considerably larger, because of its wide wing-spread. Male—Glistening steel-blue shading to black above. Chin, breast,and underneath bright chestnut-brown and brilliant buff thatglistens in the sunlight. A partial collar of steel-blue. Tailvery deeply forked and slender. Female—Smaller and paler, with shorter outer tail feathers, mak-ing the fork less prominent. Range—Throughout North America. Winters in tropics of bothAmericas. Migrations—April. September. Summer resident. Any one who attempts to describe the coloring of a birdsplumage knows how inadequate words are to convey a just idea 106
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Blue and Bluish of the delicacy, richness, and brilliancy of the living tints. But,happily, the beautiful barn swallow is too familiar to need descrip-tion. Wheeling about our barns and houses, skimming over thefields, its bright sides flashing in the sunlight, playing crosstag with its friends at evening, when the insects, too, are onthe wing, gyrating, darting, and gliding through the air, it is nomore possible to adequately describe the exquisite grace of aswallows flight than the glistening buff of its breast. This is a typical bird of the air, as an oriole is of the treesand a sparrow of the ground. Though the swallow may oftenbe seen perching on a telegraph wire, suddenly it darts off as ifit had received a shock of electricity, and we see the bird in itstrue element. While this swallow is peculiarly American, it is often con-founded with its European cousin Hirundo rustica in notedornithologies. Up in the rafters of the barn, or in the arch of an old bridgethat spans a stream,

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