444 ORNIXnOLOGY. 



out of reacli, only two of those that were found being- accessible. Both 

 Avere in horizontal fissures, scarcely large enough to admit the hand ; the 

 nest consisting of a flattened mass of sticks and straws, lined with feathers, 

 like those of the Bank Swallows {Cotyle and Stcl(jidoj)tcryx); one of them 

 contained five young birds, but the other had apparently been tampered 

 with in some way, since the parent was dead and her three eggs broken, 

 'riic latter, like those of T. hlcolor and the two species above mentioned, 

 were pure white, without markings. 



iVh-hough other observers, whose statements we do not in the least 

 doubt, have described the habits of this bird as arboreal, like those of the 

 Wliitc-bellied Smillow (T. hlcolor) and the Purple Martin, Ave never found 

 it so in any locality during our trip, it bring everywhere a strictly saxico- 

 liuc species, and an associate of Faiii/ptila saxafilis, rdrochdidon huiifrous, and 

 Jliridido horrcorniii rather than of the species named, and to be found only 

 where precipitous rocks, affording suitable fissures, occuiTed. When on the 

 wing the appearance of this loA'ely Swallow is very striking, and so unlike that 

 of any other that it may be immediately distinguished. No other species 

 lesembles it except the T. hlcolor, which is somewhat similar on account of 

 the ])ure white lower parts; but a more attentive examination discovers the 

 greater amount of white on the side of the head, and if the bird is viewed 

 from a])0ve the plumage is seen to be tricolored — the rump rich intense 

 violet, and the back lustrous green, the two colors being separated by a 

 very conspicuous, broad, and a])iiarently continuous, band of snowy white 

 across the upper part of the runiji, caused by the close aj)i)roximntion of the 

 two white flank-patches. 



Tliis Swallow appeared to be a very silent species, )iut a few notes 

 were heard, which called to mind the chirping of young i'urple Martins, as 

 heard in rainy weather. 



List of specimens. 



7(il,(?((r/; islnti.l in Pyramid Lake, Xevaila, May lirt, I8IJS. .5A— IL'J— (?)— ti, 

 ]>ill,(k'C|) black; ins, Itiniit-iuiiber ; tarsi and toes, (lecp sepia. 



817, ? (((/.; Mist lluniboldt Moiuitaiiis, Xcvada, July L'O, ISOS. r>L—U'l—{2)—'Ji. 

 Dill, deep black; iiUciior of moutli, pale iiaplcs yellow ; iris, dark sepia; tarsi and toes, 

 pale sepia-i)urple. 



1070, ? ad.; Salt Lake City, Ut.iU (City Creek Caiion), May 29, 1809. 



