CLIFF SWALLOW. 607 



Bill very straight, and gibbous both above and beneath towards 

 the tip. Primaries narrow and pointed, the 1st shorter than the 

 2d. The tail more cuneated than rounded, the two middle pairs 

 of feathers being longest, all are narrowed and obtusely pointed, 

 the two outer pairs particularly narrow. The feathers on the sides 

 of the throat are gradually elongated as they recede from the ears, 

 and appear capable of being raised into two tufts. 



AMERICAN, OR BARN SWALLOW. 



(Hirundo americana, Wilson.) 



In the fur-countries, where the habitations of men are 

 few and remote, the Swallow inhabits caves, particularly in 

 the limestone rocks ; and it also frequents the out-houses at 

 the trading posts. When Fort Franklin was erected, on 

 the shores of Great Bear Lake, in the autumn of 1825, Dr. 

 Richardson says, they found many of its nests in the ruins 

 of a house that had been abandoned for more than 10 years. 

 At Fort Chepewyan, lat. 57°, the Barn Swallows, have 

 regularly about the 15th of May, for a number of years, 

 taken possession of their nests, within an out-house, and 

 numbers of them were observed in the same month at Fort 

 Good Hope (in lat. 67^°) the most northerly post in Ame- 

 rica. This species does not appear to agree with the H. 

 rufa, of Vieillot, either in its markings or the economy of 

 its nest. The Cayenne bird builds a nest of a foot and a 

 half in length, without mud, and with an opening near the 

 bottom. 



CLIFF SWALLOW. 



{Hirundo lunifrons, Say. and Rich, and Swains. North. Zool. ii. p. 



331.) 



This species, in 1820, the same year in which it was 

 discovered by Mr. Say, who accompanied Major Long, was 



