- brick-red on throat. A partial steel-blue collar. Tail shows white band from beneath. Female smaller and paler.
- Song:
- A musical twitter like a rippling, merry laugh, — " Tittle-ittle-ittle-eè."
- Season:
- April to September.
- Breeds:
- Everywhere.
- Nest:
- A shallow bracket, made of pellets of mud and straw, placed on or against rafters, etc.
- Eggs:
- 4-6, white, curiously spotted with all shades of brown and lilac.
- Range:
- North America in general, from the Fur Countries southward to the West Indies, Central America, and South America.
The Swallows belong to the air, as the Warblers do to the trees and the Thrushes to the ground. Swallows, unless when gathering before the fall migration, are seldom seen perching, except upon telegraph wires, and they leave these with such sudden and forking fight that they seem spurred by the electric current. If, in the daylight hours, you see a bird in rapid but nonchalant pursuit of insects, you may safely assume that it is either a Swallow or the Chimney Swift, for the Flycatchers have a different flight, the Nighthawk is more ponderous, and Whip-poor-wills seldom take to the air between dawn and dusk.
The distinguishing mark of the Barn Swallow is his sharply forked tail, brick-red throat, and buff breast. It is the commonest species and the most familiar, owing to the fact that it builds so freely about barns and dwellings. Its nest is one of the earliest that country children learn to know; and the first eggs that many a boy has stolen and concealed, while his conscience was still keen enough to prick him, have been those of the Barn Swallow.
Several broods are sometimes raised in a season, the hatching continuing to late July. In fact, the last brood has entered the world, through our hayloft window, the first week in August. These Swallows have very sympathetic natures; for when danger threatens or disaster destroys a brood, the friends quickly gather about and seem to offer advice or condolence.
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