been considered by naturalists to be identical with that species, but is decidedly worthy 

 of recognition as a race. It is the bird spoken of by Azara as the Golondrina domestica 

 of Paraguay, and it is apparently plentiful in the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres. Dr. 

 von Ihering has procured it at Taquara, in the province of Rio Grande do Sul, and 

 specimens from Santa Catarina are in the Salvin and Godman collection. The examples 

 obtained by Natterer in the neighbourhood of Ypanema and Rio de Janeiro may belong 

 in all probability to this large race of P. chahjbea. 



Dr. Burmeister states that it is common throughout the whole of the La Plata 

 region, and Mr. Hudson states that the extreme limit of its range is about 250 miles 

 south of the city of Buenos Ayres. He observes : — " It was well called ' Golondrina 

 domestica ' by Azara, being pre-eminently a domestic bird in its habits. It never breeds 

 in banks, as the Patagonian Purple Martin often does, or in the domed nests of other 

 birds in trees, a situation always resorted to by the Tree-Martin, and occasionally by our 

 Common Swallow; but is so accustomed to the companionship of man, as to make its 

 home in populous towns as well as in country-houses. It arrives in Buenos Ayres 

 about the middle of September, and apparently resorts to the same breeding-place every 

 year. A hole under the eaves is usually selected, and the nest is roughly built of dry 

 grass, hair, feathers, and other materials. When the entrance to its breeding-hole is too 

 large, it closes it up with mud mixed with straw ; if there be two entrances, it stops up 

 one altogether. The bird does not often require to use mud in building ; it is the only 

 one of our Swallows that uses such a material at all. The eggs are white, long, pointed, 

 and five in number. 



" In the season of courtship this Martin is a noisy, pugnacious bird, and always, 

 when quitting its nest, utters an exceedingly loud startling cry, several times repeated. 

 It also has a song, uttered both when resting and when on the wing, composed of several 

 agreeable modulated notes, and in a thick rolling intonation peculiar to our Swallows. 

 This song does not sound loud when near, yet it can be distinctly heard when the bird 

 appears but a speck in the distance. I may here remark that, with the exception of the 

 Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, which possesses a sharp squeaky voice, like the Swallows of 

 Europe, all our Hirundines have soft voices : their usual twittering when they are 

 circling about resembles somewhat the chirping of the English House-Sparrow in tone, 

 but besides these notes they possess a song more pleasing to the ear. Before leaving in 

 February, these birds congregate in parties of from twenty to four or five hundred, 

 usually on the broad leafy top of an old ombu tree." 



This is doubtless the species spoken of by Mr. Durnford and Mr. Gibson under the 

 name of P. purpurea, as nesting near Buenos Ayres. In the ' Catalogue of Birds ' we 

 referred their notices to Progne furcata, but Mr. Hudson expressly states that this 

 species does not breed in the above-mentioned locality. Mr. Durnford says : — 



" The dates of arrival and departure of this bird are about the same as those of 

 P. tapera. The young are on the wing early in Eebruary. Common both in the town 

 and country, breeding freely in chinks in walls, under the eaves of houses, and holes in 



