HIliUXDIXID.E — THE SWALLOWS. 



345 



Hirttndo bicoloT, 



distinguished by the feathers of the throat being pure white to their roots, instead of ha\'- 

 ing the concealed bases grayisli as in that species. 



Hab. Wliole United States, and north to Slave Lalse, south to Guatemala; Bernuida ; 

 Cuba, common in winter. Breeds on table-lauds of Mexico. 



Habits. This Swallow has quite an extended distribution. Found 

 throu.^hout North America in the seasons of its migrations, or breeding, it is 

 only a little less restricted in its area of nesting than the preceding species. 

 It breeds from latitude 38° to 

 hiwh Arctic regions, and is also 

 resident throughout the year in 

 the Plateau of Mexico. It is 

 abundant in winter in the West 

 Indies, in Central America, and 

 in Northern South America. It 

 is a common bird about Boston, 

 where it replaces the Purjjle 

 ilartin, and is even more abun- 

 dant in the British Provinces. 

 Dr. Cooper also found it a very 

 common species in the western 



portions of Washington Territory, where it was invariably found to breed 

 in hollow trees. In California he states it to be a more or less constant 

 resident, a few wintering in the southern portion of the State. He met with 

 it both at San Diego and at Stockton, in February. He regards them as 

 the hardiest of the Swallows, preferring the coast and the mountain-tops 

 for their residence in that State. At Santa Cruz live or six pairs in 1866 

 were resident through the winter, where he saw them in January during 

 the coldest of the season. They roosted in the knot-holes in the houses 

 in which they had previou.sly raised their young. 



This Swallow, in the more thickly settled portions of the country in which 

 it breeds, exhibits a marked departure in many of its habits from those 

 observed in wilder regions. In the latter places we find it a comparatively 

 wild species, avoiding the society of man, and breeding exclusively in hollow 

 trees and stumps, and deserving the name by which it is known in the Brit- 

 ish Provinces, of the " Wood Swallow." In the islands of Grand Menan, 

 in 1851, where repeated attempts had been made to induce these birds to 

 build in martin-boxes, the endeavor had been entirely unsuccessful. Yet the 

 birds were so abundant that hardly a hollow tree or stump, on certain of the 

 smaller islands, could be found, that did not contain a nest of this .species. 

 This is still the case on the Pacific coast, though not exclusively so. It 

 was not until after the publication of his Ornithological Biography that Au- 

 dubon was aware of any departure from this mode of nesting on the part of 

 this Swallow, although it had not escaped the notice of Wilson. 



In Eastern Massachusetts these birds have undergone an entire change of 

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