464 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



sent from Hudson's Bay published in the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions in 1772. Forester gave it no name, and it was left for Thomas 

 Say to name and describe the species from a type specimen taken in 

 1820 on Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, an account of 

 which, compiled by Edwin James, was published in 1823. 



In the same year (1820) it was also discovered in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains by Sir John Franklin's party between Cumberland House and 

 Fort Enterprise and on the banks of Point Lake in latitude 65°, In 

 June 1825 a number of these birds made their appearance at Fort 

 Chippewyan and built their nests under the eaves of the house. This 

 fort had then existed many years, and trading posts had been in 

 existence a century and a half, and yet this was the first instance, 

 according to Baird, of the bird placing itself under the protection 

 of man throughout that wide extent of territory. Audubon (1831) 

 first saw this bird at Henderson in 1815, and two years later he found 

 a colony breeding at Newport, Ky., which dated back to the same 

 year. In 1837 Brewer (Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, 1905) received 

 the eggs of this swallow from Coventry, Vt., where they were known as 

 "eave" swallow, perhaps the first instance of the application of this 

 common name. The date at which the Vermont colony ap- 

 peared could not be determined. Brewer saw them for the 

 first time in 1839 at Jaffrey, N. H., where they appeared the 

 year before. The same year they were noted in Burlington, Vt., 

 where they had been known for only three years. A large colony was 

 observed in Attleborough in 1842. In the same year they also ap- 

 peared apparently for the first time in Boston, Hingham, and other 

 places in the neighborhood. 



In 1824 DeWitt Clinton stated he had met them at Whitehall, 

 N. Y., at the southern end of Lake Champlain in 1817 about the 

 time of their first appearance on the Ohio noted by Audubon. At 

 about this time they were seen for the first time at Randolph, Vt. 

 These swallows were seen for the first time in Winthrop, Maine, in 

 1830 and at Carlisle, Pa., in 1841. 



In 1861 Prof. A. E. Verrill discovered a large colony of these birds 

 building on the high limestone cliffs of Anticosti Island, in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence. Since this appeared to be a long-established colony 

 and far removed from civilization, Verrill was led to believe that 

 the extension of the range of the cliff swallow was not of a recent 

 date. An inquiry that he conducted revealed that they were known 

 in Maine long before they were discovered in the West, and he con- 

 cluded that they were not indigenous in the West. The fact that 

 they were not seen by the early ornithologists proves nothing; there 

 is little doubt that they were nesting in remote situations of eastern 

 North America when civilized man appeared. 



