140 Contributions from the Charleston Museum. 



236. Iridoprocne bicolor (Vieill.). Tree Swallow; White- 

 bellied Swallow. 



This species is a winter visitant but is absent on the coast only 

 from the middle of May until July 12, when the southward mi- 

 gration begins. I have detected it all through the winter months 

 and even when the thermometer registered as low as 8° to 10° 

 above zero, but it is erratic in its movements, for during some 

 winters it is positively rare, or even absent. This absence is 

 not due to a rigorous season or an open winter, but to the scar- 

 city of the food supply, which consists of berries of the wax myrtle 

 {Myrica cerifera) . During the autumn migration, and especially 

 in the month of October, I have seen multitudes of these birds 

 flying over large tracts of myrtle bushes. Dr. Bachman observed 

 a similar occurrence on October 16, 1833, and doubtless near Char- 

 leston. 



This species has a predilection for large rice-field reservoirs 

 during the winter months as insect life is abundant in such local- 

 ities. The White-bellied Swallows are of a pugnacious disposi- 

 tion, and attack each other without the slightest provocation. 



The breeding range of this species extends from Virginia to 

 the Fur Countries. 



237. Riparia riparia (Linn.). Bank Swallow. 



As far as my observations extend, this species does not breed 

 on our coast, being merely a transient visitant, arriving late in 

 March and departing the last of April. Although it is said to 

 breed on St. Simon's Island, Georgia,^ this statement is doubt- 

 less an error as the species I found breeding at Darien (which is 

 only a few miles from St. Simon's Island) in May, 1891, was the 

 Rough-winged Swallow {Stelgidopteryx serripennis) . As far as 

 my information goes there is no breeding record for the State. 



The Bank Swallow cannot with certainty be distinguished 

 from the Rough-winged Swallow when both forms are together 

 and at large, and it is necessary to shoot them in order to make 

 the identification absolute. 



The Bank Swallow inhabits the northern hemisphere. In 

 America it breeds as far north as the Arctic Ocean and winters 

 southward to Brazil. 



> Bailey, H. B.. Bull.Nutt. Om. Club, VIII, 1883, 39. 



