VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW 377 



even the burrows of bank swallows. An unusual nesting hole was 

 discovered by Edward K. Warren in Colorado; he says in his notes: 

 "It was in a dead cottonwood about 5 feet above ground, in what ap- 

 peared to be an abandoned flicker hole. The entrance was rather 

 curiously situated. The bark had been split at the above height and 

 thence down to the ground, the split widening to a foot or more. The 

 bark had kept on growing and the edges were rolled in. The entrance 

 to the nest was under the roll, and was not visible until one stooped 

 down and looked up." 



In the Yukon Valley, Alaska, Dr. Louis B. Bishop (1900b) "fre- 

 quently saw colonies of from six to ten birds of this species, and 

 one near White River that must have contained over fifty. They 

 were nesting about the cliffs as a rule, but several times we saw them 

 enter holes in banks similar to those of Clivicola riparia, while at 

 Fort Selkirk they were nesting in the interstices between the logs 

 of the cabins." 



In the vicinity of Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., the violet-green 

 swallow, according to Thomas D. Burleigh (1930), "has readily ac- 

 cepted the benefits to be derived from the proximity of man, for 

 during the breeding season they were rarely seen far from houses. 

 * * * A nest found June 9 held four slightly incubated eggs, and 

 was on a beam in a corner inside the attic of an old unused house. 

 It was a large mass of weed stems, grasses and feathers, the middle 

 being neatly cupped and well lined with large chicken feathers. 

 Another nest found June 13 held six half incubated eggs, and was in 

 a cavity between two logs in the side of an old log cabin." 



S. F. Rathbun writes to me from Seattle: "For 16 consecutive 

 years a pair of these swallows nested in a box placed under the eaves 

 of our house in the city." Some time was usually consumed in the 

 selection of nesting sites among the four boxes that he had set up, 

 as much rivalry took place between these swallows, a pair of tree 

 swallows and a pair of English sparrows. The sparrows were al- 

 lowed to occujDy the least desirable box, and he kept them busy all 

 summer by removing the eggs at intervals. He says that the violet- 

 green swallows construct their nest in a very leisurely manner, some- 

 times requiring as much as three weeks to complete it, and then a 

 day or two may elapse before the first egg is laid. "The nesting 

 material consists of an abundance of straws and dry, dead grasses 

 often with bits of string, and is warmly lined with an abundance of 

 feathers, at times a few horsehairs being woven into the lining." 



In the Kootenay Valley, British Columbia, Joseph Mailliard (1932) 

 found this swallow "commonly nesting, in the height of the flood, 

 in the dead trees and stumps of the river bottom in company with 



