1851.] lU 



January 2\st. 

 Dr. Morton, President, in the Chair. 



The Corresponding Secretary read a letter from J. G. H. Kinberg, 

 dated Malmo and Gronby, 16th December, 1850, announcing that he 

 had forwarded additional objects of Natural History for the Academy, 

 and desiring certain exchanges. 



A communication was read from Joseph P. Hazard, Esq., dated Sea- 

 side, near Point Judith, Rhode Island, noticing the arrival of the Rocky 

 Mountain Swallow in that neighborhood, with some observations on 

 its habits. 



"They first made their appearance here in the Spring of 1844, when fourteen 

 pairs of them built on the east and west sides of an outhouse of my residence, 

 and such strangers were they, that I was unable to learn the name of the species 

 for some time. They have since confined themselves almost exclusively to the 

 same premises, two or three pair only having in a few cases selected other local- 

 ities in the neighborhood. 



"In the autumn of the same year, (1844) I built a barn about half a mile dis- 

 tant, on the north side of which I provided for my new friends, in case they 

 should visit me again, a convenient projection of nearly fifty feet in length, suit- 

 ably protected. In the Spring ensuing, (1845) forty nests were built on the crib 

 which was their first choice above alluded to, and as if for experiment, six nests 

 only were built on the new barn, but in the Spring of 1846, sixty five nests 

 were built on the barn, and .the crib entirely deserted. In 1847, one hundred and 

 thirty pairs built upon the barn and almost completely occupied the space pre- 

 pared for them. At this time a few pairs which were crowded out took up quar- 

 ters in the martin and blue-bird holes on the south side of the same building, 

 ousting the rightful tenants which had previously arrived and taken posses- 

 sion. 



As the location at the barn is much more protected than that on the crib, the 

 nests are there constructed with much less reference to the probability of injury 

 from the weather than formerly upon the latter, a circumstance which evinces a 

 degree of elasticity, I believe not generally accorded to instinct. 



These swallows make their first appearance here from the 10th to the 15th ot 

 May, and commence clearing out the old nests (in which many of the dead of the 

 brood of the previous year are left) about the 1st of .Tune. The material ol 

 which the nests are made, is a very fine sand with a small admixture of blue 

 clay; when dry it is very friable and the nests suffer considerable dilapidation 

 during winter. They generally make their appearance in a mass, but this season 

 four birds only came on the 5th of May, which number received almost daily ac- 

 cessions until the 28th of the sUme month. Their arrival is earlier, and their 

 departure also, than that of the barn swallow, none remaining, I believe, latei 

 than about the 1st of September. 



" One circumstance in the habits of these birds, has struck me as peculiar: 

 they are either all of them in the vicinity of their nests or all absent, not one to 

 be seen on the premises, and although my observations have not been sufficient- 



