BAHAMA SWALLOW 373 



Plumages. — Ridgway (1904) describes the young bird, presumably 

 in Juvenal plumage, as "brown above with a strong luster of oily green, 

 a little more pronounced on the back and wing-coverts; head and 

 upper tail-coverts more sooty brown, as also the upper margin of the 

 ear-coverts; cheeks, ear-coverts, and under surface of body white, 

 with a patch of sooty brown on the sides of the upper breast." 



The sex of the specimen from which the above description was taken 

 is not stated; but if Maynard (1896) is correct in stating that the 

 sexes are unlike in the immature plumage the description fits the 

 young female rather than the young male. He says that the young 

 male is "quite similar to the adult female", which he says is similar 

 to the adult male, "but duller. * * * Beneath the white is much 

 less pure, being inclined to slaty beneath the eye, on the ear coverts, 

 across breast and on sides of breast." 



We have no information on the molts, but there is probably a post- 

 juvenal molt, more or less complete, and subsequently one complete 

 postnuptial molt each summer or fall. 



Food. — The stomachs of those dissected by Dr. Bryant (1859) "con- 

 tained almost entirely small dipterous insects, some of them extremely 

 minute." Maynard (1896) says that "they feed upon diptera and 

 coleoptera". 



Behavior. — Dr. Bryant (1859) thought the flight of the Bahama 

 swallow more like that of the barn swallow than that of the tree swal- 

 low, but ISIr. Maynard (1896) considered it halfway between the two, 

 the Bahama swallow being swifter on the wing than the tree swallow, 

 but not so swift or so graceful as the barn swallow. The latter 

 observer states: 



They have the habit of pausing, or seemingly pavising in the air, observed in 

 the White-bellied, especially when flying against the wind. Their movements 

 are, I think, influenced by the heat as they fly more slowly on a warm, still day. 

 * * * No note whatever has yet been heard. * * * 



On March 8th we came upon a flock of some twenty or more in a cup-like 

 hollow in the piney woods far to the west of the town of Nassau where the trees 

 had been cut away for the purpose of making chax-coal, leaving an oi^en space of 

 some five or six acres. The birds were darting gracefully and rapidly about, much 

 lower than I had ever seen them keep before, often nearing the tops of the low 

 herbiage. Here we shot four fine males, the first of which fell only wounded. 

 As I approached him he uttered a clucking note, which attracted the attention 

 of his hurrying comrades and they darted down at me as they dashed past, some 

 answering the cries of the prostrate bird with a low, musical chirping. Upon 

 shooting two or three times at them, however, they speedily dispersed, and in a 

 few minutes disappeared. 



Field marks. — The adult male or female should be easily recognized 

 on the wing, as it is the only one of our swallows that has a white 

 breast and a deeply forked tail. The white-breasted tree swallow has 

 a nearly square tail; and the barn swallow, with a forked tail, has a 



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