northward as Ottawa. This is a region well defined by relative altitude, as well as bv 

 its geology, botany, &c. Throughout this area I expect we shall ultimately find 

 the Rough-winged Swallow." 



In the ' Auk ' for 1887, Mr. Saunders writes : — 



" Mr. Mcllwraith refers to me as the sole evidence of the occurrence of the Hough- 

 winged Swallow, and makes the statement that I have found it breeding for the past 

 year or two ; while in 1882, in the Mordeu-Saunders list of the birds of Western Ontario, 

 we stated that it ' breeds in the same localities as the last (Bank-Swallow),' aud I have 

 found it common within a radius of twenty-five miles round London in all suitable places. 

 He follows the reference to me by stating, ' nests having been found in crevices of rocks 

 and on beams under bridges,' &c, from which one might infer that such are its habits 

 in Ontario. This, however, is not the case, as in the large number of nests I have 

 examined all were in holes in banks, and I have never seen these Swallows frequenting 

 bridges at all, but always near sand-banks ; and we have no rocks." 



Mr. Edgar Mearns, in a paper on several rare birds observed near West Point, New 

 York, observes : — 



" I have found this Swallow on but one occasion, in May, 1872, when a single 

 pair nested in this neighbourhood, in a bank close to a stable, beside a pond. I 

 watched this pair while they constructed their nest, during which time they were often 

 seen to alight, close together, on a board-fence, from which they descended after the rough 

 materials of which the nest was composed, — hay and feathers. Late in May I captured 

 the female sitting upon four fresh eggs. I had no difficulty in doing this, for the hole 

 was quite large, and not very deep, so that, by baring my arm, I could easily introduce 

 it to the back of the hole." 



In the Henshaw collection are several birds, both old and young, obtained by 

 Dr. A. K. Fisher near Sing Sing, N.Y. Dr. Berier also states that he shot a specimen 

 near Utrecht on the 29th of April, 1878. 



Mr. J. A. Stannis, writing on the " Bough-winged Swallow in Connecticut," says : — 

 "Although not given by Samuels as a bird of New England, and classed as 'a rare 

 summer visitant ' bv C. H. Merriam in his ' Birds of Connecticut ' the Rough-winered 

 Swallow breeds regularly in this State. It has nested for the past three seasons in the 

 old stone abutments at a road crossing over the New York, New Haven, and Hartford 

 Bailroad, within eight or ten rods of the depot at Green's Farms, twenty miles west of 

 New Haven. Half a dozen pairs nested there last season, and perhaps more ; but, 

 judging from the number seen, I should say there were fewer than during the season of 

 1877. I have been unable to account for the fact that more than thirty trains could 

 pass within six or eight feet of their nests each day, and not drive them away or appa- 

 rently disturb them in the least." 



Quite a large series, consisting of old and young birds from the District of Columbia, 

 is contained in the Henshaw collection, the specimens having been obtained there in 

 April and May. Mr. Richmond speaks of it as abundant here, and adds : — 



