GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, AND OLIVE 445 
voracious appetites to satisfy he came and went in pre- 
occupied silence. In two weeks the babies had filled 
the nest to overflowing and were fairly crowded out of 
it. Then the trials of the father bird really began, for 
they tagged him from twig to twig with open mouths 
and quivering wings. In vain he tried to swallow a bite 
himself. Often he seemed to hesitate between the de- 
mands of his own hunger and the entreaties of his already 
too full fledglings, but he usually sacrificed himself to 
them. In every instance the mother helped faithfully, 
and in one case she alone fed a nestling almost as large 
as herself, at the rate of six bugs in three minutes. Some- 
times she liberated one in front of him, in an effort to 
teach him to hunt for himself, but he was the only young 
Flycatcher I have ever seen refuse to try to catch an in- 
sect; he would not budge. This little comedy was 
played all one day, and early the next morning the worn 
and weary little mother was seen alone, no trace of the 
overgrown youngster could be found, nor did she seem 
to care. She called restlessly awhile, but about noon 
began to enjoy life with the rest of her kin and to forget 
the cares of yesterday. 
615. NORTHERN VIOLET-—-GREEN SWALLOW. 
Tachycineta thalassina lepda. 
Famity: The Swallows. 
Length: 4.75-5.50. 
Adult Male : Top of head, hind-neck, back, and scapulars rich green, 
either the head, neck, or dorsal region, or both, usually tinged with 
bronze or purple; rump and upper tail-coverts violet, shaded with 
purple; wing-coverts violet, edged with green ; a white patch on each 
