33P) XORTII AMKUICAN HIUDS. 



]ilariiiLi" itself under tlu^ ]>i()te('tioii (»t" man tliroiii^diont tliat wide extent of 

 territoiv. Mr. Audulion met with tlii.s species at Ilendersun, oii the Oliio, in 

 1813. Two years hiter he found a eiduny hreeding in Newport, Ky., wliieh 

 dated Itack to the same year. Several other colonies in that neighhorhood 

 also tirst ap]»eared in the same vear. In ISoT 1 received their cus from 

 Coventry, Vt., at which time they were a new species to me. They were 

 there known as tlie '" Have Swallow," and the time of tlieir first ap])earance 

 could not he determined. I tirst nie+ with them in 18:J'.», at Jaffrev, X. II., 

 where they had made tlieir iirst a])j)eanince the year before, and were not 

 then known to he anvwhere else in that vicinitv. The same year I after- 

 wards found them in lUnlinuton, Vt., where they had been kn(»wn onlv for 

 three years. When or where they tirst a}>])eared in Massachusetts is not 

 known. I first observed a lar^e colony of them in Attleborouiih in 184l\ 

 Its size indicated the existence of these birds in tliat ]»lace for .several years. 

 Tlie same year they also api)eare(l ap])arently Ibr the tirst time, in Ijoston, 

 IlinLiham, and in other ]»laces in the neighborhocMl. 



In 1824, De Witt Clinton read a jniper to the Xew York Lyceum, stating 

 that he had met with these birds at Whitehall, X. Y.,at the southern end of 

 Lake ("liam]>lain, in 1817, about the time of their first ai)})earaiice on the 

 Ohio; and L'ev. Zadock Tlionips(tn met with them in IJandolj)h, Vt., at about 

 the same period, (ieneral I)earb(»rn noticed them for the tirst time in Win- 

 throp, Me., in 1830. They first a])i)eared at Carlisle, Tenn., in 1841. 



Professor Verrill discovered, in 18()l,a lar«'e cohaiv of these birds breedinix 

 on tlu' high limestone clitls of Anticosti, apparently in their original condi- 

 tion, and (Mitirelv removed from the influence^ of man. This sunixested an 

 inquiry as to their early ])resence in Xortheastern America. From the in- 

 formation he received, he was led to c(jnclude that this Swallow was known 

 to certain ])arts of Elaine earlier than its first discovery anywhere in the 

 West. AVhether these birds were indigenous to tlie West or not cannot now 

 be determined. That thev were discovered there onlv s(» recently as 1820 

 proves nothing. We only kn(»w that in certain localities — such as IJock 

 liiver on the ^rississi]>)ii, and at Anticosti on the St. Lawrence — tlieir occur- 

 rence in large numbers in their former normal con<lition of independence 

 suggests in either locality an e(iually r«*niote Iteginning. It is ]>ossible, and 

 even probable, that in favorable localities in various ])arts of the country they 

 existed in isohited colonies. The settlement of the country, and tin* multi- 

 ]ilication ot convenient, sheltered, and safe places for tlieir nests, gradually 

 wrought a (diange in their habits, and irreatlv mnltii»lied their numlu'rs. At 

 St. Stephen, X. IJ., and in that neighborhood, Mr. I'oardman found this 

 S]>ecies as abundant in 1828 as they have been at any time since. They were 

 then very ])lentiful under the eaves of seveml old barns in that ])art of the 

 country. Yet twelve years afterward they were entirely unknown on the 

 lower Kennebec!:. 



Dr. Cooper found this to be an abundant species in California, on the 



