BULLETIN 



NUTTALL OENITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



Vol. III. JULY, 1878. No. 3. 



THE EAVE, CLIFF, OR CRESCENT SWALLOW {PETROCHEL- 

 IDON LUNIFEONS).* 



BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U. S. A. 



DiscovERY of this notable Swallow, commonly attributed to Say, 

 ■was made long before Long's expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 

 though the species was first named in the book which treats of that 

 interesting journey. The bird may have been discovered by the 

 celebrated John Reinhold Forster ; at any rate, the earliest note I 

 have in hand respecting the Clifi" Swallow is Forster's, dating 1772, 

 when this naturalist published in the Philosophical Transactions 

 " An Account of the Birds sent from Hudson's Bay ; with Observa- 

 tions relative to their Natural History ; and Latin Descriptions of 

 some of the most Uncommon," — a rather noted paper, in which 

 seven new species, viz., Falco spadiceus, Strix nebnlosa, Emberiza 

 [i. e. Zonotrichia^ leiico2)h7-i/s, Fringilla [i. e. Junco'\ hudsonias, Mus- 

 cicapa [i. e. Dendrceca^ striata, Parus hudsonicus, and Scolopax [i. e. 

 Niimenias^ horealis, are described, with references to various other 

 new birds by number, such as *' Turdas No. 22," which is Scoleco- 

 phagus ferrugineus, and " Hirundo No. 35," which is Petrochelidon 

 lunifrons. The next observer — in fact, a rediscoverer — was, 

 perhaps, Audubon, who says that he saw Republican or Cliff Swal- 

 lows for the first time in 1815 at Henderson, on the Ohio; that he 

 drew up a description at the time, naming the species Hirundo re- 

 pid)licana \sic'\ ; and that he again saw the same bird in 1819 at 

 Newport, Ky., where they usually appeared about the 10th of 



* By permission, from advance sheets of the " Birds of the Colorado Valley," 

 Vol. L 



VOL. III. 8 



