ATTICORA CYANOLEUCA. 83 



upwards to escape by flight. I have often wondered at this, since this 

 swift-winged and quick-doubling little bird is the least likely to fall a 

 prey himself. 



They possess another habit very grateful to the mind of every early 

 riser. At the first indication of dawn, and before any other wild bird 

 has broken the profound silence of night, multitudes of this Swallow, as 

 if at the signal of a leader, begin their singing and twittering, at the same 

 time mounting upwards into the quiet dusky sky. Their notes at this 

 hour differ from the hurried twittering uttered during the day, being 

 softer and more prolonged, and, sounding far up in the sky from so 

 many throats, the concert has a very charming effect, and seems in har- 

 mony with the shadowy morning twilight. 



30. ATTICOEA CYANOLEUCA (Vieill.). 

 (BANK-SWALLOW.) 



Atticora cyanoleuca, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 479 ; Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. 

 p. 14; Hudson, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 844 (Buenos Ayres); Durnford, Ibis, 1876, 

 p. 158 (Buenos Ayres), 1877, p. 32 (Chupat), p. 170 (Buenos Ayres), 1878, 

 p. 392 (Central Patagonia); White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 596 (Catamarca) ; 

 Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. viii. p. 90 (Concepcion, Bahia Blanca) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat, B. x. p. 186. 



Description. Above dark glossy blue ; quills and tail-feathers black ; cheeks 

 and under surface of body pure white, the sides of the neck blue, descending in 

 a half-crescent on the sides of the chest ; -sides of body and flanks brown ; under 

 tail-coverts black ; bill and feet black ; total length 4-7 inches, wing 4-05, tai 

 2-2. Female similar. 



Hab. Central and South America. 



This diminutive dark-plumaged species is the smallest of our Hirun- 

 dines. In Buenos Ayres they appear early in September, arriving before 

 the Martins, but preceded by the Common Swallow. They are bank- 

 birds, breeding in forsaken holes and burrows, for they never bore into 

 the earth themselves, and are consequently not much seen about the 

 habitations of man. They sometimes find their breeding-holes in the 

 banks of streams, or, in cultivated districts, in the sides of ditches, and 

 even down in wells. But if in such sites alone fit receptacles for their 

 eggs were met with, the species, instead of one of the commonest, would 

 be rare indeed with us ; for on the level pampas most of the water- 

 courses have marshy borders, or at most but low and gently sloping 

 banks. But the burrowing habits of two other animals the Vizcacha 

 (Lagostomus trichodactylus), the common large rodent of the pampas, 

 and the curious little bird called Minera (Geositta cunicularia) have 



VOL. i. D 



