277 



N. Y., in 1825, and near Lake George in 1829. In 1830, they were 

 mentioned by Mr. S. Woodruff as breeding in numbers at Windsor, 

 Ct., and also, according to Dr. T. M. Brewer, at Wintbrop, Me., by Gen- 

 eral Dearborn. Dr. Brewer * speaks of them as breeding at Coventry, 

 Vt., in 1837, and at Jaffrey, N. H., in 1839. Prof S. F. Baird first 

 notices them at Carlisle, Pa., in 1841. At about this period, they 

 seem to have become common in Massachusetts, but are well known 

 to have been common some years earlier in Maine, New Hampshire, 

 Vermont, and Northern New York. 



My attention having been drawn to this subject by the discovery, in 

 1861, of a large colony of these birds breeding ort the high limestone 

 cliffs of Anticosti, apparently in their original condition, and entirely 

 removed from the abodes and influence of man^ it became an interest- 

 ing subject of inquiry to ascertain whether any information could be 

 obtained of their early occupation of the northeastern part of Amer- 

 ca. In this way I hoped to be able to judge, to a certain extent, 

 whether this species was originally indigenous in that part of the 

 country, breeding in such localities as would furnish suitable lime- 

 stone cliffs for the support and preservation of its nests, or whether, in 

 its assumed eastward migrations, it had first forsaken its native haunts 

 on the cliffs of the West for the safer and more congenial sites found 

 upon the buildings of man, and, advancing still further east, across a 

 country abounding in buildings suited to its wants, it had afterwards 

 forsaken its acquired habits and gone back to breed upon the remote 

 and lonely cliffs of Anticosti. 



In pursuing this investigation, I have been surprised by the amount 

 of evidence that has constantly accumulated to prove that this swal- 

 low was well known in the interior and northern parts of Maine, as 

 early as or earlier than its first discovery anywhere in the West. A very 

 large proportion of the aged farmers who have been to any extent 

 observant of such facts, when questioned concerning this species 

 (which is well known to them as the " Eaves Swallow," no other spe- 

 cies having the habit of building its nests in the same way), mention 

 its singular habits as one of the early recollections of their boyhood. 

 Many of them, though not able to fix upon any precise date when 

 they first saw it, feel sure that it was not later than 1812 or 1815, and 

 some have given much earlier dates. 



The reliable testimony of two or three trustworthy persons ought, 

 however, to be sufficient to establish so obvious a fact as this must ne- 

 cessarily have been. To this end I have selected the following state- 

 ments : — 



Aaron Shackley, Esq., of Norway, Me., an aged geutleirian, remark- 



* North American Oology, page 96. {Smithsonian ContrihutionSf Vol. xi.) 



