THE BANK SWALLOW. 259 



Unlike all our other swallows, this species avoids the 

 neighborhood of man in selecting its breeding-place ; and it 

 is abundant only in the neighborhood of streams or other 

 sheets of water. It is distributed, as a summer resident, 

 in all the New-England States, and in many localities is 

 very abundant. It arrives the first week in May, often 

 earlier ; and soon pairs, and commences building, or rather 

 excavating, for the nest. The excavations are made in 

 sand-banks, in the same manner as those of the Kingfisher, 

 and are often three or four feet in depth, usually about 

 eighteen inches. At the end of this burrow, which is 

 widened and enlarged, is placed the nest, composed of 

 dried grasses, hay, feathers, and other like soft materials. 

 The birds are sociable in their habits, as are all the other 

 species ; and often as many as twenty and thirty holes 

 may be seen in the same bank. The number of eggs is 

 either five or four. These are of a pure-white color, and 

 vary but little in size or shape ; the latter being almost 

 always oval, and the size ranging from .72 by .52 inch to 

 .68 by .49 inch. Usually two broods are reared in the 

 season, but often only one. 



In habits, this bird resembles the other swallows, but is 

 not so quarrelsome as they, and I never noticed two of this 

 species fighting : its note is not, like theirs, shrill and oft 

 repeated, but is only a seldom-uttered lisping chatter. It 

 leaves New England by the last week in August. 



PROGNE, BoiE. 



Prague, Bioe, Isis (1826), 971. (Tj'pe Hirundo purpurea, L.) 

 Bill, strong, short ; the gape very wide ; the sides gradually compressed, the 

 culmen and lateral margins arched to the tip, the latter inflected; the nostrils 

 basal, lateral, open, and rounded; tail considerably forked; tarsi shorter than the 

 middle toe and claw, about equal to the toe alone; toes long, strong; lateral ones 

 equal. 



The large size, very stout bill and feet (for this family), with the usually uni- 

 form black glossy plumage, readily distinguish this genus among the swallows. 

 But one species is well established as North American. 



