THE BANK SWALLOW. 259 
Unlike all our other swallows, this species avoids tlie 
neighborhood of man in selecting its breeding-place ; and it 
is abundant only in the neighborhood of streams or other 
sheets of water. It is distributed, as a summer resident, 
in all the New-England States, and in many localities is 
very abundant. It arrives the first week in May, often 
earlier ; and soon pairs, and commences building, or rather 
excavating, for the nest. The excavations are made in 
sand-banks, in the same manner as those of the Kingfisher, 
and are often three or four feet in depth, usually about 
eighteen inches. At the end of this burrow, which is 
widened and enlarged, is placed the nest, composed of 
dried grasses, hay, feathers, and other like soft materials. 
The birds are sociable in their habits, as are all the other 
species; and often as many as twenty and thirty holes 
may be seen in the same bank. The number of eggs is 
either five or four. These are of a pure-white color, and 
vary but little in size or shape; the latter being almost 
always oval, and the size ranging from .72 by .52 inch to 
.68 by .49 inch. Usually two broods are reared in the 
season, but often only one. 
In habits, this bird resembles the other swallows, but is 
not so quarrelsome as they, and I never noticed two of this 
species fighting: its note is not, like theirs, shrill and oft 
repeated, but is only a seldom-uttered lisping chatter. It 
leaves New England by the last week in August. 
PROGNE, Bore. 
' Progne, Brox, Isis (1826), 971. (Type Hirundo purpurea, L.) 
Bill, strong, short; the gape very wide; the sides gradually compressed, the 
culmen and lateral margins arched to the tip, the latter inflected; the nostrils 
vasal, lateral, open, and rounded; tail considerably forked; tarsi shorter than the 
middle toe and claw, about equal to the toe alone; toes long, strong; lateral ones 
equal. 
The large size, very stout bill and feet (for this family), with the usually uni- 
form black glossy plumage, readily distinguish this genus among the swallows. 
But one species is well established as North American. 
