Hirundo rustica
Order Passeriformes
Family Hirundinidae
Adult.— Entire upper parts, except the forehead, deep purplish-blue; forehead, upper breast, and throat chestnut; sides of throat and upper breast bluish; lower breast and belly varying from salmon to whitish; outer tail-feathers long and narrow; tail, when spread, much spotted with white.
Immature.— Outer tail-feathers shorter than in adult.
Nest, made chiefly of mud mixed with straw and lined with feathers, placed commonly against a rafter of an open barn.
Eggs, white, speckled with brown and lavender.
The Barn Swallow is a very common summer resident of all New York and New England, wherever there is any grass-land. It arrives towards the end of April, and leaves early in September. It builds a nest of straw and mud on a rafter of a barn or shed, or occasionally on some projection outside, but not fastened by the side under the eaves. In late June the old birds are very busy, hawking for insects over the tall grass in the meadows, and flying in and out through the open door, or through a broken pane. In July the young appear, sitting on the shingles on the slope of the roof, or later on the dead branches of neighboring trees, or on the fences. Here they are still fed by the parents. A little later, they too are constantly on the wing and are fed in the air, the old bird and the young one mounting upward together, their breasts almost touching. The young at this season lack the long outer tail-feathers.
The Barn Swallow’s notes are pleasing and often musical. In the barn, or when flying in friendly companies, they utter a gentle twitter. When they become excited, this changes to a more emphatic kit-tic. The male often sings a song of some length, which ends with a very curious rubbery note. The song is uttered either high in air or from the barn ridge-pole.
When a Barn Swallow perches, the long outer tailfeathers show like two long needle-points projecting beyond the wings. These long feathers and the white in the tail distinguish the Barn Swallow from all the other swallows.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)