COMMON SWALLOW 



Tachycineta leucorrhoa 



Above glossy dark green ; rump white ; quills black, washed with 

 green ; tail black with greenish gloss ; base of forehead, cheeks, and 

 whole under surface white; flanks and sides washed with smoky 

 brown ; length 5.5 inches. 



THIS is the most abundant and best known of our 

 Swallows ; a pretty bird in its glossy coat of deep 

 green, and rump and under surface snowy white ; 

 exceedingly restless in its disposition, quick and 

 graceful in its motions ; social, quarrelsome, gar- 

 rulous, with a not unmusical song, beginning with 

 long, soft, tremulous notes, followed by others 

 shorter and more hurried, and sinking to a murmur. 

 They are the last of all our migrants to leave us in 

 autumn, and invariably reappear in small numbers 

 about the houses on every warm day in winter. 

 Probably many individuals in Buenos Ayres remain 

 through the winter in sheltered situations, to scatter 

 over the surrounding country whenever there comes 

 a warm bright day, I once saw three together, 

 skimming over the plains, on one of the coldest 

 days I ever experienced on the pampas, the ther- 

 mometer having stood at 29 deg, Fahrenheit that 

 morning. 



Further south their migration is more strict ; and 

 on the Rio Negro, in Patagonia, from March to 



