A Catalogue of Birds obtained in Navarro County, Texas. 195 



Srd, I saw a flock of several hundreds, and from that date until 

 well on in August what I take to be the same flock daily fre- 

 quented the same stretch of prairie, passing in the morning to 

 the westward, and in the evening returning over the same course 

 to the woodlands where they roosted. After their departure I saw 

 not a single one until the 10th September, when about a score 

 passed me, flying south, nor did I see more than two or three 

 single birds until the 21st, when I witnessed a most extraordinary 

 migration — a flock passing the house which must have consisted 

 of many thousand individuals, forming a continuous stream which 

 lasted for more than two hours, the air being thick with them the 

 whole time. A few days later I saw a similar flock, but not so 

 large, and then only a few every day until the 2nd October, after 

 which I observed no more. All these were passing towards the 

 south-east. 



HiRUNDO ERYTHEOGASTEA, Bodd. Bam Swallotv. — Owing to 

 the want of suitable breeding places, the barn swallow is merely 

 a passing migrant in spring and fall, and even then in very small 

 numbers. They never appear in flocks, like the last species, but 

 always singly or in pairs, and passed northwards in April, but 

 during that month they were so scarce that I did not see more 

 than a dozen examples, while on the return migration, which lasts 

 from the middle of August to the end of September, few days 

 passed on which I did not see as many. Their line of flight is 

 always due north and south, and is much more direct and con- 

 tinuous than that of any other of their relatives when migrating. 



Taceycineta bicolor (Yieil.) White-bellied Swallow. — This 

 beautiful species is for the most part only a spring migrant in 

 this section, and is the first of all its family to arrive on the 

 prairie, where a few pairs appear early in March, and during the 

 latter half of that month and the whole of the next they are 

 common, while even during May a few straggling pairs occur at 

 irregular intervals. It is possible that some few may even remain 

 to breed so far south, as a pair undoubtedly frequented the neigh- 

 bourhood of a clump of isolated trees upon the prairie during the 

 month of June, but I never was able to detect any signs of nidi- 

 fication. Like many other birds, their fall migration must move 

 along some other parallel, as they never appear in this district at 

 that season. 



