94 NORTH AMERICAN OOLOGY. PART I. 



LUNIFRONS. 



Hirundo lunifrons, SAY, Long's Exp. to Rocky Mountains, II, 1823, 47. 

 " " RICH. & SWAINS. F. B. A. II, 1831, 331. 



CASSIN, Syn. N. A. Birds (Illust. Birds of Cal.), 1854, p. 243. 

 Hirundo opifex, CLINTON, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist, of N. Y. I, 1824, 161. 

 Hirundo respullicana, AUD. Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist, of N. Y. I, 1824, 164. 

 Hirundo fulva, BONAP. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 63, pi. vii, fig. 1. 

 * " " Syn. 1828, p. 64. 



" NUTTALL, Manual, I, 1832, 601. 



" AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 353 ; V, 415 ; pi. Ixviii. 



" NUTTALL, Manual, II, 1834, 607. 



" BONAP. Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, p. 9. 



" AUD. Syn. 1839, p. 35. 



" Birds of Am. I, 1840, 177, pi. xlvii. 

 " DE KAY, Nat. Hist. N. Y., Birds, 1844, pi. xxx, fig. 64. 



VULG. Cliff Swallow. Fulvous Swalloio. White-nosed Swallow. Republican Swallow. 

 Eave Swallow. Rocky Mountain Siealloiv. Mud Swallow. While-fronted Swallow. 



THE careful investigations of Mr. John Cassin, of Philadelphia, have very clearly 

 established sufficient specific differences between the Cliff Swallow of the United 

 States and the Hirundo fulva of Viellot to justify their separation into distinct spe- 

 cies. The specific name of lunifrons, first given to our species by Mr. Say, belongs 

 to it, therefore, by the strict rules of nomenclature, and well expresses its most 

 striking characteristic. In some parts of New England these new-comers are dis- 

 tinguished from the common inmate of our barns by the name of the "White-faced 

 Swallow." 



The history of this social bird, in all that relates to its mode of breeding and its 

 habits at that busy period, is replete with interest and full of attractive incidents. In- 

 timately connected with its domestic economy arises the difficult problem of its geo- 

 graphical distribution, past and present. The opinion is very generally entertained, 

 and certainly has the weight of evidence in its favor, that the Cliff Swallow was for- 

 merly found only on the western side of the continent, and that its appearance on 

 the Atlantic coast has been a very recent occurrence. A negative fact of this nature 

 is not often so susceptible of positive proof as naturalists would usually insist upon. 

 It is now too late to establish by certain evidence, and beyond all doubt, the fact of 

 its former absence from our Atlantic shores. Yet it would certainly be difficult, I 

 am almost justified in saying impossible, to reconcile with its presence, now so con- 

 spicuously manifest, the profound ignorance of its very existence that prevailed until 

 within a few years. There are not wanting, however, those who are not ready to 

 admit the correctness of conclusions apparently so well founded. Some boldly con- 

 tend that it has always been here, but that its presence has somehow been unac- 

 countably overlooked by naturalists, though known to the common people. Others 

 urge the hardly less improbable supposition that it has always existed, on the more 

 northern portion of the eastern coast, where naturalists have only recently pushed 



