FULVOUS OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 603 



attentive parents. When able to provide for themselves, 

 they are still often fed on the wing without either party 

 alighting ; so aerial and light are all their motions, that 

 the atmosphere alone seems to be their favorite element. 

 In the latter end of summer, parties of these social birds 

 may be often seen by the sides of dusty roads, in which 

 they seem pleased to bask. 



About the middle of August they leave the barns, and 

 begin to prepare for their departure, assembling in great 

 numbers on the roofs, still twittering with great cheer- 

 fulness. Their song is very sprightly, and sometimes a 

 good while continued. Some of these sounds seem like 

 H'le 'fie 'fletalit, uttered with rapidity and great ani- 

 mation. Awhile before their departure, they are ob- 

 served skimming along the rivers and ponds after insects 

 in great numbers, till the approach of sunset, when they 

 assemble to roost in the reeds. 



The length of the species is about 7 inches, alar stretch 13. Ex- 

 terior feathers of the tail an inch and a half longer than the next. 

 Iris dark hazel. Legs dark purple. — Female with the belly and 

 vent rufous- white. 



FULVOUS OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 



{Hirundo fulva,yiTAi.'L. Bonap. Am. Orn. i. p. 63. pi. 2. fig. 1. Aud. 

 pi. G8. Orn. i. p. 353. Phil. Museum, No. 7G24.) 



Sp. Charact. — Blue-black: beneath brownish-white; throat and 

 rump ferruginous; front with a paler semi-lunar band; tail even. 



The Cliff Swallow has but recently come to the notice 

 of naturalists. Its summer residence in the temperate 

 parts of America is singularly scattered. They appear 

 to have long occupied the regions near the Rocky 

 Mountains, the cliffs of the Missouri, and probably other 

 large western rivers. In 1815, they appeared for the 

 first time at Henderson on the banks of the Ohio, and at 

 New Port in Kentucky. In 1817, they made their ap- 



