VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW. 145 
the world. Where white man’s foot had never 
trodden before—in the solitude of a primeval 
forest, in a rough shanty formed by human hands, 
where the roaring bellows and clanging hammer 
kept chorus all day long—there two swallows, 
trusting that man would harm them not, erected 
their mansion, watched and reared their children. 
Where they would have built their house had not 
man’s handiwork provided them with a site, I 
hardly know. I never but once again saw this 
swallow’s nest, and this was built under a bridge 
we made across a small stream. I suppose they 
must find old caverns or holes in the rocks, for, 
being an open nest, it must be sheltered from the 
rain. 
VIOLET-GREEN SwatLow (Hirundo Thallas- 
sina, Swainson). — This beautiful swallow is 
common from the coast, along the entire course 
of the Boundary-line, to the summit of the 
Rocky Mountains. They are amongst the earliest 
visitors at Colville, arriving in small flocks in 
March, but in greater numbers in May and 
June. They build in June, making their nests 
in holes in dead trees, as high as they can get, and 
lay four or five eggs. The nest is made of 
feathers and soft hair. I am pretty sure their 
nesting-holes are excavated in the soft wood by 
VoL. IL. L 
