164 Hirundo fulva of Vieilloi. 



severity of the weather. I drew up at the time a description 

 under the name of H. Rejpublicana, Republican swallow, in 

 allusion to their mode of association for the purposes of build- 

 ing and rearing their young. Unfortunately, the specimens, 

 through the carelessness of my assistant, were lost, and I des- 

 paired for years of meeting with them again. 



In the year 1819, my hopes were revived by Mr. Robert 

 Best, curator of the Western Cincinnati Museum, who inform- 

 ed me that a strange species of bird had appeared, building 

 nests in clusters affixed to walls, which I immediately recog- 

 nised as the Republican swallow. 



In consequence of this information, I immediately crossed 

 the Ohio, to Newport in Kentucky, where he had seen those 

 nests the preceding season, and no sooner were we landed, 

 than the chirrups of my long-lost little strangers saluted my 

 ear. Numbers of them were busily engaged in repairing the 

 damages done to their nests by the storms of the preceding 

 winter. 



Major Oldham, of the United States Army, then command- 

 ant of the garrison, politely afforded us the means of examin- 

 ing the settlement of these birds, attached to the walls of the 

 buildings under his charge. He informed us, that in 1815 he 

 first saw a few of these birds working against the wall of the 

 house, immediately under the eaves and cornice ; that their 

 work was carried on rapidly and peaceably, and that as soon 

 as the young were able to travel, they all departed. Since 

 that period, every spring has brought them and their increase, 

 amounting now to several hundreds. They usually appear 

 about the tenth of April, and immediately begin their work, 

 which was at that moment, April twentieth, progressing in a 

 workmanlike manner, against the walls of the arsenal. 

 They had about fifty nests quite finished, and others in course 

 of construction. 



About daylight they fly down to the river shore, one hundred 

 yards distant, for the muddy sand, of which their nest is com- 



