604 SWALLOW TRIBE. 



pearance at Whitehall, near Lake Champlain, in the 

 western part of the state of New York. In these places 

 their increase seems to have kept pace with the time since 

 their arrival, augmenting their nests from a single clus- 

 ter to several hundreds in the course of 4 or 5 years. 

 Vieillot observed one at sea off Nova Scotia, and they 

 have, in fact, long been commonly known in that province. 

 In 1818, as I learn from J. W. Boott, Esq., they began 

 to build at Crawford's, near the base of the White Moun- 

 tains of New Hampshire. In the summer of 1830 a few 

 nests were seen by General Dearborn at Winthrop in 

 Maine ; he had also heard of one at Gardiner in the same 

 state. The hibernal retreat of this species would ap- 

 pear to be in the West Indies, as they were seen in Por- 

 to Rico by Vieillot, and one was also observed in St. 

 Domingo by the same author. 



In the Western States they arrive from the south early 

 in April, and almost immediately begin to construct their 

 nests. They commence their labor at the dawn and 

 continue their operations until near mid-day. They are 

 made of pellets of sandy mud, disposed in layers until 

 the fabric with its entrance assumes the form of a pro- 

 jecting retort, agglutinated to cliffs or the walls of build- 

 ings, as convenience may offer. From the nature of the 

 friable materials employed, the whole is frail and crum- 

 bling in the possession of any but the airy owners. The 

 internal lining is of straw and dried grass, negligently 

 disposed for the reception of the eggs, which are usually 

 4, and white, spotted with dusky-brown. They raise but 

 a single brood, who with their parents, after several at- 

 tempts at mustering, finally disappear in August, as sud- 

 denly as they came. 



Like the rest of their congeners, they are almost per- 

 petually on the wing in quest of flies and other small in- 



