17 



they often iutrude and keep possession. They evince a strong attachment for their 

 offsiH-ing, and manifest great affliction when rohbed of them, uttering low but exceed- 

 ingly plaintive complaints. When a pair of these Swallows have become familiarized to 

 a certain locality, returning to it year after year, with a little pains it is not difficult to 

 enter into a limited intercourse with them, especially in supplying them with the 

 materials of their nest. Two of these birds, who have for several years occupied an old 

 and rudely-constructed tenement in the very heart of Boston, receive eacli year an 

 abundant supply of feathers, almost from the very hands of the members of the family 

 under whose protection they fiiid a shelter. ]\ early all the materials they used were 

 feathers blown to them from the window, which, with the quickness of thought, they 

 would dart at and catch with their bills, and immediately convey to their retreat. In 

 time they became so familiar, as almost to take them from the hands of the person who 

 supplied them. This has been repeated several seasons. When they have young just 

 hatched, or eggs on the point of hatching, they sit so close as to be easily taken on their 

 nest. When taken and released, they fly but a few feet from their nest, hovering over 

 the heads of their intruders. 



" They construct a very loose, soft, warm nest of fine hay and leaves, abundantly 

 supplied with down and feathers, by which the eggs are often found completely covered. 

 Great pains are apparently taken to keep the nest clean and dry by constant additions of 

 soft, dry materials during incubation. They have usually two broods in a season. 



" The eggs are of a beautiful pure white. When unblown, they have a delicate 

 pinkish shade, imparted by the yolk. They are somewhat oblong in shape, the smaller 

 ends are well defined and pointed, and the eggs are only subject to occasional variations 

 in size. Their measurements vary from x| to j^ of an inch in length, and from yij to y^ 

 in breadth." 



Tlie White-bellied Swallow does not appear to have much song. Mr. BickneU, in 

 his notes on the singing of birds, says : — "Tlie song of this S\vallo«' is hardly more tlian 

 a chatter. It is to be heard as iate in the year as tlie bird is witli us. Its ordinary 

 notes are less sharp and rapid than tliose of the Barn-Swallow." 



Mr. Drew writes : — " I have seen no account of the song of this species, nor, indeed, 

 was I aware of its musical powers until the past summer. May 2 Ith, at an elevation of 

 8000 feet, I found a little colony just beginning house-keeping in a cotton-wood grove 

 on an island in the San Antonio lliver, Colorado. When at rest tiuw iitten"d a i)eculiar 

 chiruppy warble, resembling a Sparrow's song in some respects, and strikingly like a 

 Robin's in some of the half whistles." 



We have already alluded to the habit of assembling in vast numl)ers wliich this 

 Swallow occasionally exhibits. A further instance ol' this ciiaraeteristie in its winter- 

 quarters in Guatemala is related by Messrs. Salvin ninl (iodman : — " N\ e onee ohserxed 

 a Hock of this kind in the open space in the forest of tin" Nolean de iMu-iro e;illed I'.ij.il 

 Grande, the elevation of which is about ■"((lOO feet ;ilio\e the sea-le\(l. I'his was on the 

 25th December, 1873, when a vast llock of these liinls were semi eirelin- round and 



2ai 



