VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW. 145 



the world. Where white man's foot had never 

 trodden before in the solitude of a primeval 

 forest, in a rough shanty formed by human hands, 

 where the roaring bellows and clanging hammer 

 kept chorus all day long there two swallows, 

 trusting that man would harm them not, erected 

 their mansion, watched and reared their children. 

 Where they would have built their house had not 

 man's handiwork provided them with a site, I 

 hardly know. I never but once again saw this 

 swallow's nest, and this was built under a bridge 

 we made across a small stream. I suppose they 

 must find old caverns or holes in the rocks, for, 

 being an open nest, it must be sheltered from the 

 rain. 



VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW (Hirundo Thallas- 

 sina, Swainson).- - This beautiful swallow is 

 common from the coast, along the entire course 

 of the Boundary-line, to the summit of the 

 Rocky Mountains. They are amongst the earliest 

 visitors at Colville, arriving in small flocks in 

 March, but in greater numbers in May and 

 June. They build in June, making their nests 

 in holes in dead trees, as high as they can get, and 

 lay four or five eggs. The nest is made of 

 feathers and soft hair. I am pretty sure their 

 nesting-holes are excavated in the soft wood bv 



/ 



VOL. II. L 



