16 



able contrast, a strict adherence to its primitive breeding-peculiarities in certain 

 localities, and a complete departure from tliem in others. In the more thinly-settled 

 j)ortions of this country, esjjecially Avhere old forests with their many hollow trees and 

 decayed stumps are still abundant, we find this Swallow breeding in their convenient 

 cavities, and seldom induced, even when the effort is made to tempt them to do so, to 

 occupy the boxes jjut up for their better accommodation. This was the case in the 

 cluster of small islands in the Bay of Fundy around Grand Menan, where tbese birds 

 are very abundant, and where, although Martin-boxes liave l)een prepared for their use, 

 in no instance had they, when I last visited that locality (1851), been induced to occupy 

 them. Hollow trees, holes in stumps, fences, and logs seemed to be tbeir preferred 

 places for nesting. They are in consequence known in such localities by the name of 

 the Wood-Swallow, so also, in the western part of the country, hollow trees ai-e so gene- 

 rally their resort, that even Audubon, at the time of the publication of the first volume 

 of his Ornithological Biography, was not aware that they had, in any instance, been 

 known to imitate the Blue-bird, the Martin, and the Wren, in accepting the bospitalities 

 of man. Yet this fact has not escaped the observation of Wilson. In some parts of the 

 country, especially iu Eastern Massachusetts, these Swallows have undergone a change 

 of habit as complete as that of the Purple Martin, of whose boxes they have there 

 possessed themselves. I have even known of their nesting in a rough candle-box with 

 one end knocked out, and placed for them in an accessible situation. Audubon 

 speaks of their driving the Barn-Swallow from its nest and taking possession, and Nuttall 

 mentions their breeding on flat horizontal branches of trees. I have never met with 

 them in either of these situations. This species is widely distributed, from the Middle 

 States to the extreme northern regions ; Sir John Bichardson found tliem breeding iu 

 hollow trees at Fort Norman, on the Mackenzie Pk^iver, in latitude 65°. Tliey are spoken 

 of by writers as not so numerous as the Barn-Swallow ; but this my own observations 

 would lead me to doubt. Along the Atlantic coast, from latitude 38° to the St. Lawrence, 

 they are our most common species. They are said to be equally abundant on the shores 

 of the Pacific and the banks of the Columbia River. They seem to be less abundant in 

 the interior, especially in the absence of water. 



" If, as we presume to be the case, the species of the Pacific coast is identical with 

 this, the White-bellied Swallow lias a range coextensive with the habitable portions of 

 North America, from the West India Islands to Greenland on the Atlantic, and from 

 Southern California to the Russian possessions on the Western Coast. Dr. Townsend 

 observed it throughout Oregon ; Dr. Garabel, Dr. Heerman, and Mr. Samuels met with 

 it breeding it California ; Lembeye and Gundlach give it as one of the common birds of 

 Cuba (though not mentioned by Mr. Gosse as found in Jamaica) ; and Dr. Woodliouse 

 Ibund it throughout the Indian Territories, Texas, and New Mexico, as well as in 

 California. 



" This species, during the breeding-season, is more quai'relsome than any other of their 

 relatives, and they are quite a match even for the Purple Martin, upon whose territories 



