HIRUNDIXID.E — THK SWALLOWS — COTYLE. 



Ill 



touch. No feathers on the tarsus and toes. Above, rather light sooty-brown ; beneath, 

 whitish-gray, or light brownish-ash, becoming nearly pure white in the middle of the belly 



and on the under tail coverts. Length, 5.. 'JO ; e.xtent 12.00; wing, 4.50 ; tail, 2.23. Iris, 

 brown ; bill and feet black. 



Hah. United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 



Bank swallow.s, cliieHy of this specie.?, are fntnid in sunimcr tlirono-h 

 nearly the whole lower p(jrtions of the State. I saw them first at Fort 

 Mojave, on tlie 27th of Feljruary, hut I have seen them at San Diego on 

 Novemher 9th and January 27tli, so that, if they do not winter within the 

 State, they do not go far heyond it. 



They frei^uent chiefly the sandy hanks of rivers, and hurrow in them to a 

 depth of two or three feet, the holes crowded very near together, and enter- 

 ing a few feet below the upper edge of the haidc. At the bottom of the 

 burrow is the nest, composed chiefly of dry grass with a few feathers, con- 

 taining fi\-e white eggs. Sometimes they resort to natural clefts in the 

 bank, or in adobe buildings, and occasionally to knot-holes. . In favorable 

 places they congregate in great niiml)ers about one sf)ot, and continue to 

 keep much in flocks during the fall. Tliey ha^-e only a faint twittering 

 note when Hying. At night they roo.st in tlieir burrows, and in cnhl 

 weather liave been found almost torpid in tliem. According to Audubon, 

 the eggs of this species are larger, longer, and more pointed than those of 

 the bank swallows. 



The peculiarity of the wings of this species shown in tlie accompanying 

 figrxre is shared by several others in JMiddle and Soutli America, wliich liave 

 lately been grouped under a genus Stdyidoptcryx (cuny-comb wing). 



C. scrnpennis. 



