594 ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW. 
for appending so crooked a character. About two years ago, my friend 
the Rey. Joun Bacuman, sent me four Swallow’s eggs accompanied 
with a letter, in which was the following notice :—* Two pairs of Swal- 
lows resembling the Sand Martin, have built their nests for two years 
in succession in the walls of an unfinished brick house at Charleston, in 
the holes where the scaffoldings had been placed. It is believed here 
that there are two species of these birds.” The eggs which my friend 
sent me differ greatly from those of our Common Sand Martin, being 
so much longer, larger, and more pointed, that I might have felt in- 
clined to suppose them to belong to the European Swift, Cypselus mu- 
rarius. But of the birds which had laid them no particular account 
was given. ‘Time has passed; and during the while IT have been an- 
xious to meet again with such Swallows as I had shot near Bayou Sara, 
as well as to determine whether our Common Sand Martin be the same 
as that of Europe. And now, Reader, I am at iast able to say, that 
the Sand Martin or Bank Swallow, Hirundo riparia, is common to Eu- 
rope and America; and further, that a species, confounded with it in 
the latter country, is perfectly distinct. 
I perhaps should never have discovered the differences existing be- 
tween these species had I not been spurred by the remarks of Vre1Ltort, 
who, in expressing his doubts as to their identity, and perhaps holding 
in his hand the bird here spoken of, says that the tarsus is much larger 
than in the European Sand Martin. I have been surprised that these 
doubts did not awaken in others a desire to inquire into the subject. 
Had this been done, however, I should probably have lost an opportu- 
nity of adding another new species to those to whose nomination I can 
lay claim, not to speak of such as, although well known to me previous 
to their having been published by others, I have lost the right of nam- 
ing because I had imparted my knowledge of them to those who were 
more anxious of obtaining this sort of celebrity. I have now in my pos- 
session one pair of these Swallows procured by myself in South Caro- 
lina during my last visit to that State. Of their peculiar habits I can 
say nothing ; but, owing to their being less frequent than the Sand Mar- 
tin ; I am inclined to believe that their most ‘habitual residence may 
prove to be far to the westward, perhaps in the valleys of the Columbia 
River. 
I regret that I have not figured this species, though it would have 
