UNIDENTIFIED NORTH AMERICAN SWALLOWS 449 



a philosopher did with Xantippe, it was not worth while to 

 quarrel forever with these energetic and voluble birds, and 

 suffer for their sense of right. So the Martins had it all their 

 own way ; and they might be seen roosting on the ends of the 

 blasted boughs, with the nervous quiverings so characteristic 

 of the tribe, during which their burnished plumage glittered in 

 the sun, or more deliberately preening their feathers, making 

 the elaborate toilet required to free themselves from some of 

 their little guests, or sallying with redoubled volubility after 

 some Hawk or Raven that ventured too near their metropolis. 

 They added much to the life of these sombre and treacherous 

 woods, where danger lurked in the very air at the time of which 

 1 write, and the thickets screened many an atrocity from the 

 light of day. The later Arizonian, no doubt, will find the 

 Woodpeckers in undisputed possession of such trees as his ax 

 may spare, while the garrulous Martins cluster round his dwell- 

 ing. If he be fond of a morning nap, it may occur to him that 

 Tereus, though a reprobate, was not such a bad fellow after all; 

 and he may enquire again, between two yawns — 



" Quid matutinos Progne mihi garrnla somnos 

 Rumpis, et obstrepero Daulias ore canis ? 

 DigDus epops Tereus, qui maluit ense putare 

 Quam linguam immodicam stirpitua eruere." 



NOTES TO THIS CHAPTER 



The following Swallows, ascribed to North America, have not been satih- 

 factorily identified : — 



1. Hirundo unalaschkensis, Gm. SN. L 1788, 1025, n. 30 (from Aoonalashka Swallow of 



Lath. Syn. ii.pt. ii. 571, n. 15).— r. " O AS. i. 1807,64" Steph. Gen. Zool. x. 1817, 117 



Cass. Illuat. 1855, 250. 

 Hirundo aoonalaschkensis, Latk. TO. ii. 1790, 577, n. 15. 

 Hirundo aoonalasliliensis, Titrt. Syst. Nat. i. ie06, 631. 

 Hirundo aooualasliensls, F. EM. ii. 1823, 526. 

 Ohelidon unaiaschliensis, Boie, Isis, 1844, 171. 



Aoonaiu^tblia 8wailow, Lath. Syn. ii- pt. ii. 1783, n. 15 (orig. descr. Mus. Lev.). 

 Aoonalaschlian Swailow, Steph. 1. c. 

 Hirondelie d'Ounalaska, r. I.e. 



2. Hirundo plicniccpliala, liaf. Annals of Nature, 1820, 4 (Lexington, Ky.). (See espe- 



cially Cassiii, Illust. p. 2.")1.) 



3. Hirundo cincrca, Ord, Guthrie's Geogr. 2d Am. ed. ii. 1815, 317 {dcscr. nulla). (Sec 



Cassin, op. cit. 252.) 



4. Hirundo rupcstrls, Ord, Guthrie's Geogr. 2d Am. ed. ii. 1815, 317 (descr. nulla). (See 



Cassin, I. c.) 



29 B c 



