Identifier: birdsofvillagefi00bail (find matches)
Title: Birds of village and field: a bird book for beginners
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Bailey, Florence Merriam, b. 1863
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
imes condescend to visit the earthfor nesting materials and the limewhich they need to harden their egg-shells. Their eggs, like those of theEave Swallow, are white, heavily spot-ted with brown. If you watch a row of Swallowsperched on a telegraph wire, you willhear the bright, happy warble whichadds so much to their attractiveness.In addition to this twittering song,their call note is said to be a softand affectionate loitt, witt, and the crygiven in time of danger a harsh trrn-^ trrrr. The homely old proverb, One Swallow doesnot make a summer, shows how intimately thesebirds are associated with the close of winter. AsMr. Nehrling puts it, in his enthusiastic way: We welcome their first appearance with de-light, as the faithful harbingers of flowery springand ruddy summer; and when, after a longfrost-bound and boisterous wdnter, w^e hear it an-nounced that the Swallows have come, what atrain of charming ideas are associated with thesimple tidings ! Fig. 21.Strong footof Song-Sparrow.
Text Appearing After Image:
Plate IV.—BARN SWALLOW Upper parts steel-blue ; tail deeply forked, with white spots oilouter feathers ; throat chocolate. Length, about 7 inches. BARN SWALLOW 51 But as it is a pleasure to have the birds comeback in spring, it is always with a feeling of re-gret that we see them gather for their southwardflight in fall; for the silence of the deserted barnsand telegrapli wires suggests the coming winter. Before beginning their southward journey, theSwallows gather in large flocks. Sometimes theycan be followed from farm to farm. They goso slowly and stop so often on the way that theyoung birds gradually get used to following theold ones. Then they make prolonged stops atdefinite roosts, sometimes in trees and sometimesin marshes along river banks. It is a most inter-estino sio-ht to watch them then. In an article in The Auk, Mrs. Bates gives a graphic accountof a roost in the willows along the KennebecRiver, in Maine, at which the movements of thebirds are most remarkable. At sunse

Note About Images