398 BULLETIN 179, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ing point. There was widespread destruction of cultivated plants, and small 

 fishes in countless numbers lay dead on the tidal flats. * * * As in the 

 preceding days the cold grew more intense, these birds were seen to hover 

 more closely above the water surfaces, and to leeward of the walls of houses. 

 On the morning of January 28, about fifty of them were found, densely packed 

 in the cavity of a Pileated Woodpecker, formed long since in the stub of a pal- 

 metto, standing among mangroves a few yards from the margin of the bay. 

 Twenty-eight were already dead or died soon after removal. A few flew away 

 at once; others revived in the sunshine. On a sea-wall near by, about fifty 

 more were resting in the sun, clustered like bees, some on the level top of the 

 wall, others on its rough and sheltered face. Later in the day a half-dozen 

 more were picked up dead on the lawn of the adjacent property." 



A few of the bodies of the dead swallows found in the wood- 

 pecker cavity were opened and their stomachs were found to be 

 empty. "No doubt there had been considerable shortage of food; 

 no doubt the massing within the cavity had increased the destruction, 

 but the fundamental cause of death was the cold." 



The next morning he found only about a dozen swallows in the 

 cavity, three of which were dead. Driving across the Tamiami 

 Trail he found further evidence of disaster to the swallows, many 

 of which had been run over by passing ears. "Even on wing the 

 living birds seemed to have lost their usual agility, and twice, to 

 my regret, my moving car struck birds in the air. * * * i found 

 them thronged in an outhouse on the brink of the canal — one dead, 

 two or three others fluttering to lie widespread upon the ground. At 

 another place the graveled parking area was strewn with bodies — 

 perhaps fifty of them."] 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — North and Central America ; occasional in Cuba and casual 

 on the coast of British Guiana. 



Breeding range. — The tree swallow breeds north to northern Alaska 

 (Point Barrow and Fort Yukon) ; Mackenzie (Fort Goodhope, Fort 

 Norman, Fort Providence, and Fort Kesolution) ; northern Manitoba 

 (Lac du Brochet and probably Fort Churchill) ; northern Quebec 

 (Chimo) ; and northern Newfoundland (Bard Harbor). East to 

 Newfoundland (Bard Harbor, Nicholsville, and St. George Bay) ; and 

 south along the Atlantic coast to Virginia (Wallops Island) . South 

 to Virginia (Wallops Island) ; Maryland (Fairhaven, Hagerstown, 

 and Crellin) ; central Ohio (Columbus) ; Indiana (Terre Haute) ; 

 Missouri (St. Louis and Bolivar) ; Kansas (Wichita) ; Colorado 

 (Salida and Durango) ; Utah (La Sal Mountains and Provo Bay) ; 

 central Nevada (Carson) ; and southwestern California (San Onofre). 

 The western limits of the breeding range extend northward along the 

 Pacific coast from southern California (San Onofre) ; to Alaska (Lake 

 Aleknagik, St. Michael, Cape Prince of Wales, and Point Barrow). 



