Violet Green Swallow {Tachydneta thalassina lepida) 



By Lynds Jones 



Length : About 6 inches. 



The Violet-green Swallow is one of the most beautiful of the Hirundinidse, 

 or family of swallows. There are about eighty species of the family, and they are 

 world-wide in their distribution. These tireless birds seem to pass almost the 

 entire day on the wing in pursuit of insects, upon which they feed almost exclu- 

 sively. They can outfly the birds of prey, and the fact that they obtain their food 

 while flying enables them to pursue their migrations by day and to rest at night. 



The Violet-green Swallow frequents the Pacific Coast from British Columbia 

 on the north, southward in the winter to Guatemala and Costa Rica. Its range 

 extends eastward to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. 



Its nest, which is made of dry grass and copiously lined with a mass of 

 feathers, is variously placed. Sometimes the knot-holes of oaks and other de- 

 ciduous trees are selected. They have also been known to use the deserted homes 

 of the cliff swallow. Mr. Allen states that they "nest in abandoned woodpeckers' 

 holes, but at the Garden of the Gods and on the divide between Denver and Colo- 

 rado City, we found the building in holes in the rocks." This swallow is quite 

 common in western Colorado, where they have been observed on the mountain 

 sides at an altitude of eight to over ten thousand feet. In "The Birds of Colo- 

 rado," Mr. W. W. Cooke says : "A few breed on the plains, but more commonly 

 from six to ten thousand five hundred feet" above the level of the sea. He also 

 adds that they begin laying late in June or early in July and desert the higher 

 regions in August and the lower early in September. 



The notes of this exquisite bird are described by an observer, who says that 

 they "consist of a rather faint warbling twitter, uttered as they sit on some low 

 twig, their favorite perch ; when flying about, they seem to be rather silent." 



The violet-green swallows, like their sister species, usually nest and migrate 

 in colonies. 



Hud soman God wit {Limosa haemasHca) 



Range: Breeds from the lower Anderson River southeast to central Kee- 

 watin ; winters in Argentina, Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. 



Nothing less than two continents suffice to satisfy the roving disposition of 

 the Hudsonian godwit which, according to Cooke, probably breeds on the 

 barren ground from the mouth of the Mackenzie to Hudson Bay. The species 

 winters in Argentina and Chile and after leaving our northeast coast probably 

 reaches winter quarters by an all-sea route. On the return journey in spring 

 the godwit reaches Texas in April, and follows up the Mississippi Valley, thus, 

 in a general way, duplicating the route of the golden plover. The Hudsonian 

 godwit has been greatly aided in its struggle with fate in the shape of merciless 

 sportsmen by the fact that its breeding grounds arc in a distant and desolate 



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