THE WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW. OT 
species; and, in fact, identification is next to impossible. 
In a majority of the present species, the spots are somewhat 
coarser, and the eggs are generally longer. Four eggs, 
collected in Dorchester, Mass., are of the average dimen- 
sions of .84 by .54 inch; other specimens, from various 
localities, are about this size. 
Like the Barn Swallow, this species gathers into large 
flocks at the end of the summer, and frequents the same 
localities, but not at the same time; as it leaves usually a 
week or ten days before the other bird. 
HIRUNDO BICOLOR. — Vieillot. 
The White-bellied Swallow; Blue-backed Swallow. 
Hirundo bicolor, Vieillot. Ois. Am. Sept., I. (1807) 61. Aud. Orn. Biog. (1831), 
491. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Glossy metallic-green above; entirely white beneath. Female much duller in 
color. 
Length, six and twenty-five one-hundredths inches; wing, five inches; tail, two 
and sixty-five one-hundredths inches. 
This very common and well-known species is a summer 
inhabitant of all New England; being most abundant in 
localities near sheets of water, and less common in high, 
dry districts. Its habits are well known; and arriving, as 
it does, early in the season, and fraternizing with man, it is 
a great favorite. It makes its appearance as early as the 
first week in April, but does not commence building before 
the middle of May. Near cities and towns, the nest is 
built in martin-boxes provided for its reception: but, in 
less thickly settled districts, it is built in holes in stumps 
and trees; and cases are on record of its being built in a 
deserted nest of the common Barn Swallow. When passing 
through the chain of the Umbagog lakes, in Maine, I 
observed great numbers of these birds whose nests were 
built in holes in dead trees standing in the lake near the 
shores. These nests were so plenty, that, in the area of 
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