ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW 425 



fatigued by a long day's exertion, I lenned against a tree, and gazed on the 

 Swallows, wishing that I could travel with as much ease and rapidity as they, and 

 thus return to my family as readily as they could to their winter quarters. 

 How it happened I cannot now recollect, but I thought of shooting some of them, 

 perhaps to see how expert I might prove on other occasions. Off went a shot, 

 and down came one of the birds, which my dog brought to me between his 

 lips. Another, a third, a fourth, and at last a fifth were procured. The ever- 

 continuing desire of comparing one bird with another led me to talie them up. 

 I thought them rather large, and therefore placed them in my bag, and pro- 

 ceeded slowly toward the plantation of William Perry, Esq., with whom I had 

 for a time taken up my residence. 



The naturalist examined his specimens carefully and saw that they 

 were different birds from the sand martin, or bank swallow, but he 

 continues. "At this time my observations went no further." 



Then, "about two years ago, my friend the Rev. John Bachman, 

 sent me four Swallow's eggs accompanied with a letter, in which was 

 the following notice — 'Two pairs of Swallows resembling the Sand 

 Martin, have built their nests for two years in succession in the walls 

 of an unfinished brick house at Charleston, in the holes where the 

 scaffolding had been placed. It is believed here that there are two 

 species of these birds.' * * * 



"I have now in mj' possession one pair of these Swallows pro- 

 cured by myself in South Carolina during my last visit to that 

 State." 



The roughwing enjoys a very extended range in the Western Hemi- 

 sphere. Essentially a bird of the Austral Zone, it does not hesitate 

 to establish itself in mountainous country thousands of feet above 

 sea level. According to Miller (1930) the bird breeds in the heart 

 of the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, at about 2,000 feet; in 

 western North Carolina Brewster (1886) found it up to 2,500 feet. 

 James B. Dixon (MS.) says that in California it breeds from sea level 

 up to 6,500 feet. Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) report speci- 

 mens collected at Red Rock P. O., Calif., at an elevation of 5,300 

 feet; also, birds observed at Petes Valley, 4,500 feet; Secret Valley, 

 4,500 feet ; and Jones, 5,400 feet. 



This bird, also locally known as the sand, or gully, martin, is 

 rather solitary in habits and usually does not congregate during the 

 breeding season, as does its near relative the bank swallow. How- 

 ever, as Dawson (1923) says, "favorable conditions may attract sev- 

 eral pairs to a given spot, as a gravel pit, but when together they 

 are little given to community functions." 



Courtship. — Grinnell and Storer (1924) write: "From time to time 

 the males were seen in pursuit of the females and, while so engaged, 

 to make rather striking use of their seemingly plain garb. They 

 would spread the long white feathers (under tail coverts) at the lower 

 base of the tail until they curled up along either side of the other- 



