194 Rhoads, Ornithological Publications of C. S. Rafinesque. LApril 



American species, the Tapera Swallow {Hirundo tapera) which is 

 however totally different from ours, being black above and white 

 beneath. 



Our Blue Bank-Swallow is a small species, about five inches 

 long: it has a black bill and brown feet. Its face or the space 

 surrounding the bill is black, the forehead white, the top of the 

 head blue; the cheeks, throat and upper part of the rump of a 

 reddish chestnut colour, or rufous, the back is blue spotted with 

 white, the belly of a dirty white, the wings brown, with some 

 yellow spots beneath at the base, and the tail is equal, unforked, 

 truncate and brown. 



This pretty Swallow is found on the banks of the Ohio, where it 

 has only been lately noticed; whether it has lately come there 

 from southern regions or had not been noticed heretofore, may be a 

 matter of doubt, but of little consequence. It appears now to be 

 rather common on some peculiar spots, such as near Newport in 

 Kentucky and Madison in Indiana; it comes late in the Spring 

 builds its nest on the high banks of the river and disappears early. 

 Its nest is singular, in the shape of a reversed bottle, with the 

 opening at the end of the neck; the materials being similar to 

 those employed by the common Swallows. This bird is to be seen 

 preserved with its nest in the Museum of Cincinnati: It deserves 

 the further attention of the friends of science. 



C. S. Rafinesque." 



The White-fronted or "Blue Bank Swallow" of Rafinesque, or, 

 to be more brief, the Cliff Swallow of authors, is destined to go 

 down into the history of nomenclature as a distinguished bird. 

 It made so many narrow escapes of being properly named in a 

 binomial sense that it seems a bit humiliating for it to now be 

 snatched from the laurel crown of Thomas Say and transferred, 

 by the rights of priority, to a man whom he undoubtedly despised 

 and certainly ignored. Say was one of the coterie of Philadelphia 

 naturalists that eventually drove Rafinesque and his literary 

 contributions from any recognition by the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, Whatever Say may have lost, Rafinesque certainly 

 gains greatly in having won, in the priority game of naming and 

 properly describing the Cliff", or Eave or Republican Swallow as 



