15 



the west base of Mount Shasta in midsummer, and they were abundant in the cultivated 

 region about Susanville, Lassen County. They were very rarely seen in the Sacramento 

 Valley, and were never found breeding' in cliffs or other natural situations." 



Mr. Evermann, in his paper on the birds of Ventura County, California, writes : — 



" An abundant summer resident. In 1881, a colony of more than a hundred pairs 

 nested in a shed in Santa Paula. The nests were fastened to the rafters, much after the 

 manner of the Barn-Swallow. Many horse-hairs were plastered into the nests, and these 

 often caused the death of the builders. I took from this shed some six or eight dead 

 birds Avhich I found hanging about the nests, they having got entangled in the hairs." 



Mr. Belding's Californian notes are as follows : — 



" A few of these birds were occasionally seen at Big Trees in July. It was rare at 

 Murphy's about September 1st, and I did not find it at Stockton on or after September 

 6th. It is abundant at both the latter places during the breeding-season. At Stockton 

 it builds under the eaves of buildings ; at Murphy's, in the limestone boulders exposed 

 by mining. It arrived at Murphy's on March 15th, 1877 ; at Stockton on March 17th, 

 1878; and at North-American Hotel on March 12th, 1878." The same gentleman 

 observes that he saw the first individual of this species at San Jose del Cabo, in Lower 

 California, on the 29th of April. 



Dr. Merrill writes that the bird was common at Port Klamath in Oregon, nesting 

 abundantly in the buildings about the Fort ; and Mr. Anthony, in his paper on the birds 

 of Washington County, Oregon, observes : — " Abundant summer resident. A colony of 

 about two hundred built at Beaverton this spring, for the first time in the memory of 

 its inhabitants." 



The late Mr. J. K. Lord's collections from British Columbia contained several speci- 

 mens of the Cliff- Swallow, but up to the present time the species has not been recorded 

 from Vancouver Island, although, as Dr. Robert Brown says, it ought to occur there. 



Of the range of this Tetrochelidon in Central America we are still without know- 

 ledge on many points. Colonel Grayson found the species " breeding in the banks of 

 the Mazatlan River in May." We would remark, however, that the breeding of this 

 Swallow in banks of rivers is nowhere else recorded. Either it has been a misprint for 

 ' on ' the banks, or the note refers to Stelgklopteryx and has got misplaced. He says 

 that it was apparently only a summer visitant, and he did not observe it during the 

 winter months. As Messrs. Salvin and Godman remark: — "Mazatlan, therefore, may 

 be considered the extreme southern limit of its breeding-quarters." Since the above- 

 named gentlemen wrote in their ' Biologia Centrali-Americana,' the species has been 

 obtained by Mr. Eerrari-Perez at Acatlan, in the State of Puebla; by Mr. W. Lloyd at 

 Santana, near Guadalajara; and by Trujillo, one of Mr. Godman's collectors, at 

 Juachengo, in Oaxaca, in April. 



Mr. Gaunter procured a single specimen in the island of Cozumel, and Mr. C. H. 

 Townsend obtained one at Truxilio, in Honduras, on the 21st of September. Mr. Ridg- 

 way records the species from Costa Rica, an adult male having been obtained at San Jose 



2y2 



