NESTING OF THE ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW 441 



the dispersion of the species is general, calling for no com- 

 ment ; but the various records from the West may be profit- 

 ably analyzed. Dr. A. L. Heermann early found the bird in 

 California, as recorded by himself and by Cassin in 1855, as 

 well as at other places in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. 

 Audubon's original surmise respecting its extension to the 

 Columbia was verified by Dr. Newberry, and also by Drs. 

 Cooper and Suckley, who found the bird common in Oregon 

 and Washington Territories, especially coastwise, about the 

 cliffs of the bays and inlets. Dr. Cooper noted its arrival near 

 the Columbia in May, and its departure in August. In his 

 later work on Californian Birds, the latter records his first 

 observation of the bird at Fort Mojave, on the 27th of Feb- 

 ruary, but adds that he has seen them at San Diego on the 

 9th of November and 27th of January, " so that, if they do not 

 winter within the State, they do not go far beyond it." Dr. 

 Kennedy found it along the Colorado in February. Mr. H. E. 

 Dresser noted its arrival at Eagle Pass from the south the 

 21st of February, and observed its breeding at San Antonio 

 late in April. In higher portions of Arizona, I found it to be 

 a common summer resident, arriving at Fort Whipple late in 

 April, and remaining through the greater part of September. 

 Heushaw saw it in numbers in Southern Colorado during May, 

 and also about the pueblo of Zuni in New Mexico ; it was still 

 more abundant at Provo, Utah, and other points in the same 

 general area, where also Mr. Ridgway attests its presence in 

 great numbers. In some places, says the last-named, it was 

 the most numerous representative of the family next after the 

 Cliff and White-bellied Swallows. Other records might be 

 cited, but I have given enough to show that the Rough-winged 

 Swallow is generally distributed over the United States, ex- 

 cepting most of New England, but not much further north- 

 ward ; agreeing in this respect with the Yiolet-green, and 

 being, next after this species, more restricted in its habitat 

 than any other Swallow of North America. 



Its breeding habits have been specially studied by Dr. 

 Brewer and one or two other persons, who have left us the 

 record of their observations. The nidification is substantially 

 like that of the Bank Swallow, but there are various discrep- 

 ancies, as Mr. Van Fleet has shown, even when the bird breeds 

 in holes in the ground, to say nothing of the wide departure it 

 makes in nesting about human habitations. In 1843 and 1844, 

 Professor Baird and Dr. Brewer made some observations, which 



