HIRUNDO BICOLOR — WHITE BELLIED SWALLOW. 267 



In our species the pectoral collar is interrupted in the 

 middle, while the European has it complete. 



Length about 7 inches. Female smaller. 



HiRUNDO BicoLOR, Viellot. — The White Bellied Swallow. 



Audubon's Birds of America, I., plate 46. 



One of our most common swallows, and found in all the 

 States and Canada. Like the Barn Swallow, it arrives in 

 Ohio in April, and departs about the first of September. 

 It winters in the States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. 



Some of the earlier ornithologists confounded this species 

 with the House Martin, {H. urlnca^) of Europe, from which 

 it differs in several points, and particularly in the mode of 

 nesting. The natural place of resort for purposes of nidifi- 

 cation, with the White Bellied Swallows, is the interior of 

 hollow trees, and probably holes in rocks. In the vicinity 

 of dwellings, they select holes in buildings, and in cities, 

 to which they often resort, the boxes put up for the accom- 

 odation of the Blue Birds and the Purple Martins are often 

 appropriated by this bird. A few years ago, a pair of these 

 swallows endeavored to oust a family of Blue Birds from a 

 box in our garden, but without success. The battle, how- 

 ever, was kept up for over a week. They contented them- 

 selves finally with an empty box a few yards o/F. 



Like all the swallows, they capture their prey on the 

 wing and their flight is protracted, swift and graceful. 

 They are often found in the neighborhood of water, skim- 

 ming over the surface and occasionally dipping their wings 

 in the stream. In different conditions of atmosphere they 

 fly high or low, and this depends on the scarcity or abun- 

 dance of their insect prey at different heights in the air. 



