17 



hawking after flies; first one bird passing, then two or three, and a minute or two later 

 half a dozen, and so on for the greater part of the day. So long as the weather continues 

 warm they journey in this leisurely manner ; but I have known them to continue passing 

 till April, after all the summer migrants had left us, and these late birds flew by with 

 great speed in small close flocks, directly north, as if their flight had been guided by the 

 magnetic needle. While flying, this species continually utters sharp twitterings and 

 grinding and squealing notes of various lengths." 



Whether misled by Dr. Sclater's statement as to the habitat of the species, or not, 

 it is well to observe Mr. Hudson's belief in the breeding of the species in Patagonia. 

 He apparently does not seem to know of its nesting in North America. Our own belief 

 is that it only visits South America as a winter home, and we should require some very 

 definite evidence to make us credit that it breeds there. 



We quote herewith the admirable account of the nesting of the present species, 

 written by Dr. Elliott Coues, in the ' Birds of the Colorado Valley' : — 



" It may be rcniem bered in this connection that a happy conjunction of circum- 

 stances is required to satisfy these birds. Not only are cliffs or their substitutes necessary, 

 but these must be situated where clayey mud, possessing some degree of adhesiveness 

 and plasticity, can be procured. This conjunction is met at large in the west, along 

 unnumbered streams, where the birds most do congregate ; and their very general 

 dispersion in the West, as compared with their rather sporadic distribution in the East, 

 is thus readily explained. The great veins of the West — the Missouri, the Columbia, 

 the Colorado, and most of their venous tributaries, returning the humours from the 

 clouds to their home in the sea — are supplied in profusion with animated congregations 

 of the Swallows, often vastly more extensive than those gatherings of the feathered Sons 

 of Temperance beneath our eaves, where the sign of the order — a bottle, neck downward 

 — is set for our edification. 



"All are familiar, doubtless, with the architecture of these masons ; if any be not, 

 the books will remove their iguorance. Bat there are many interesting details, perhaps 

 insufficiently elucidated in our standard treatises. It is generally understood that the 

 most perfect nest, that is, a nest fully fiuished and furnished with a neck, resembling a 

 decanter tilted over, — that such a ' bottle-nosed' or ' retort-shaped' nest is the". typical 

 one, indicating the primitive fashion of building. But I am by no means satisfied of 

 this. Remembering that the Swallows are all natural hole-breeders, we may infer that 

 their early order of architecture was a wall, rampart, or breastwork, which defended and, 

 perhaps, enlarged a natural cavity on the face of a cliff. Traces of such work are still 

 evident enough in those frequent instances in which they take a hole in the wall, such 

 as one left by a missing brick, and cover it in, either with a regular domed vestibule, or 

 a mere cup-like rim of mud. It was probably not until tney had served a long appren- 

 ticeship that they acquired the sufficient skill to stick a nest against a perfectly smooth, 

 vertical support. Some kind of domed nest was still requisite, to carry out the idea of 

 hole-breeding, a trait so thoroughly ingrained in Hirundine nature, and implying perfect 



