8 



"Wliite-tliroatecl Swift {Pamjptila saxatilis) and Cliff- Swallow {Petrochelidon Imiljrons). 

 Their nests were in almost every case out of reach, only two of those that were found 

 being accessible. Both Avere in horizontal fissures, scarcely large enough to admit the 

 hand, the nest consisting of a flattened mass of sticks and straws, lined with feathers, 

 like those of the Bank-Swallows {Cotile and Stelgidopteryx) ; one of them contained five 

 young bii'ds, but the other had apparently been tampered with in some way, since the 

 parent was dead and her three eggs broken. The latter, like those of T. bicolor and the 

 two species above-mentioned, were pure white, without markings. 



" Although other observers, whose statements we do not in the least doubt, have 

 described the habits of this bird as arboreal, like those of the White-bellied Swallow 

 {T. bicolor) and the Purple Martin, we never found it so in any locality during our trip, 

 it being everywhere a stiictly saxicoline species, and an associate of Panyptila saxatilis, 

 Fetrochelidon lunifrons, and Sirimdo horreorum rather than of the species named, and 

 to be found only where precipitous rocks, affording suitable fissures, occurred. When on 

 the wing the appearance of this lovely Swallow is very striking, and so unlike that of any 

 other that it may be immediately distinguished. No other species resembles it except 

 tlie T. bicolor, which is somewhat similar on account of the pure white lower parts ; but 

 a more attentive examination discovers the greater amount of white on the side of the 

 head, and if the bird is viewed from above the plumage is seen to be tricoloured — the 

 rump rich intense violet, and the back lustrous green, the two colours being separated 

 by a very conspicuous broad and apparently continuous band of snowy white across the 

 upper part of the rump, caused by the close approximation of the two white flank- 

 patches. 



" This Swallow appeared to be a very silent species, but a few notes were heard, 

 which called to mind the chirping of young Purple Martins, as heard in rainy 

 weather." 



" This is enough," adds Professor Cones, " to settle the question we asked each other 

 for some years. Where does the Violet-green breed ? We have here simply a hole-breeder, 

 indifferent vrhether the cavity it occupies be tree or rock ; and we need not be surprised to 

 learn any day that it has been found nestling in a bank of earth, in a natural excavation, or 

 even in a Kingfisher's or Bank or Kough-winged Swallow's hole. One thing, however : it 

 has never learned the plasterer's trade, at which the Cliff and Barn Swallows are such clever 

 artisans ; and yet it has been stated by me, in the ' Birds of the Northwest,' p. 88, on the 

 authority of Mr. T. M. Trippe, to have been found ' nesting imder the eaves of houses, like 

 the Cliff-Swallow,' the fact being adduced to show that, like most others of its tribe, this 

 bird had at length paid its compliments to human civilization. The details of the circum- 

 stance had not been communicated to me in 1874 ; but Mr. Trippe yesterday (March 17, 

 1878) visited my study, and we had some conversation on the subject. He described the 

 nests, in which Violet-green Swallows certainly liad their eggs, as bulky structures of 

 mud, and like those of Cliff-Swallows. Being perfectly familiar with the birds, he could 

 not have been mistaken in identifying the species ; and he agreed with me that the birds 



