346 ‘THE VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW. 
No. 132. 
VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW. 
A. O. U. No. 615. Tachycineta thalassina lepida (Mearns). 
Synonym.—NorTHERN VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW. 
Description.—Adult male: Upperparts, including pileum, hind-neck, back, 
upper portion of rump, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts, rich velvety bronze- 
green, occasionally tinged with purple, crown usually more or less contrasting 
with color of back, greenish-brown rather than bronze-green, and more strongly 
tinged with purple; a narrow cervical collar, lower rump, and upper tail-coverts, 
velvety violet-purple; wings (except lesser coverts) and tail blackish glossed with 
violet or purple; lores grayish; underparts, continuous with cheeks and area over 
and behind eye, and with conspicuous flank patch, nearly meeting fellow across 
rump, pure white; under wing-coverts pale gray, whitening on edge of wing. 
Bill black; feet brownish black; iris brown. Adult female: Like male but 
usually much duller, bronze-green of upperparts reduced to greenish brown, or 
brown with faint greenish reflections. Young birds are plain mouse-gray above 
and their inner secondaries are touched with white. Length 4.50-5.50 (114.3- 
139.7); wing 4.41 (112); tail.1.77 (45); bill .20 (5.2). 
Recognition Marks.—Smaller; green and violet above, white below; white- 
cheeked and white-rumped (apparently) as distinguished from the Tree Swallow. 
Nesting.— Nest: of dried grasses with or without feathers, placed in crevice 
of cliff or at end of vapor hole in basalt walls; latterly in bird boxes and about 
buildings. Eggs: 4-6, pure white. Av. size .72 x .48 (18.3 x 12.2). Season: June. 
General Range.—Western United States, from the eastern base of the 
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, north to the Yukon Valley, south in winter to 
Costa Rica. 
Range in Washington.—Summer resident, of regular occurrence in moun- 
tain valleys and among the foothills; rare or local elsewhere; becoming common 
in the larger cities. 
Migrations.—S pring: “About the 1oth of May” (Suckley)#; now at least 
March; Chelan, March 27, 1896; Seattle, March 24, 1906; Tacoma, March 16, 
1907; March 14, 1908; Olympia, February 27(?), 1897. 
Authorities.— ? Ornith. Com. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., VII., 1837, 193 (Columbia 
River). Hiruwndo thalassina Swainson, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX., pt. IL., 
imsioy yon Suz, I, Cees Wee, Im, IDM, IDE, Sie IIS: Ifo IA 1B, 
Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. P'. C. E. 
TO appear to the best advantage this dainty sky-child should be seen on 
a bright day, when the livid green of back and crown may reflect the glancing 
rays of the sun with a delicate golden sheen. At such a time, if one is clam- 
bering about the walls of some rugged granite cliff of the lower Cascades, he 
feels as if the dwellers of Olympus had come down in appropriate guise to 
a. Cooper and Suckley, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. XII., pt. II., 1860, p. 185. 
