138 HEADQUARTERS. 
other place north of the Boundary line, as it 
passes the Columbia, so well suited for the 
purposes of the Commission as this valley—hence 
the Commissioner fixed on it as our headquarters. 
It was a glorious place for birds: which were 
in great force. All my notes on the habits of 
the different species of birds I observed, shot, and 
brought home, would fill a ponderous volume; 
the full list of species is given in the Appendix. 
For special description a few groups are selected, 
whose habits are not generally known, or which 
vary in accordance with local modifying causes— 
matters always interesting to the general reader 
as well as to the naturalist. Swallows are always 
in great abundance, arriving from southward 
when the insects make their appearance. 
Tae Wuitr-BELLIED SwaLLow (Hirundo bi- 
color, Vieillot) is one of the most abundant species 
visiting Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 
reaching an altitude, on the Cascades and Rocky 
Mountains, of 7,000 feet above the sea-level. 
Its favourite hawking-grounds are the open 
prairies, or round the margin and over the 
surfaces of lakes, large and small. 
Unlike the species next described, this swallow 
always builds its nest in dead willow or cotton- 
wood trees, and lines it with ducks’ feathers. 
