Plate LXVIII. 



Fig. 1. TACHYCINETA BICOLOR-White-betiied Swallow. 



This beautiful Swallow is a common summer resident, but is irregularly distributed. It arrives about 

 the first week in April and remains until September or October. It usually nests the last of May and 

 commonly rears but a single brood during the season. 



LOCALITY: 



The natural desire of the White-bellied Swallow is for sluggish moving rivers and large ponds of 

 stagnant water, and so far as my observation extends, they frequent such places entirely, in company 

 with the Rough-winged and Bank Swallows. In the Eastern States, and, according to Dr. Wheaton, also 

 in Northern Ohio, its habits have materially changed. Capen says: The nest "is usually placed in 

 boxes and the like, put up for its accommodation. In sparsely settled districts it nests in hollow trees." 

 Page 288, "Geological Survey of Ohio," Vol. IV, is the following: "The White-bellied Swallow is, in 

 the vicinity of Columbus, rather rare except during the migrations; formerly, they were abundant, and 

 nested in the holes of dead trees along the river banks ; as these trees disappeared, the Swallows removed 

 to some more suitable locality. I have never known them to breed in bird-boxes in this vicinity, though 

 they sometimes do so in Northern Ohio." Along the Scioto and its tributaries, this Swallow still builds 

 in its primitive way, selecting for the nest a natural cavity or an abandoned nest of a Woodpecker in 

 some dead tree upon the bank. Just above Circleville, along the river, there are a number of large dead 

 sycamores, many of the limbs of which are fairly honeycombed with Woodpecker's holes. Here every 

 year these Swallows build, but most of the nests are inaccessible. 



POSITION : 



The nest rests upon the bottom of the cavity, being supported solely from below. Its distance from 

 the ground varies from ten to forty feet; perhaps sometimes it is even higher, but generally it is within 

 thirty feet of the surface. 



MATERIALS : 



The chief materials of the nest are grass, straws, and leaves for a foundation, and upon these an 

 abundance of feathers from chickens, geese, ducks, or other birds is placed for a soft lining. 



One nest taken in 1882, was composed of a few old grass-stems, and four large, soft goose feathers, 

 arranged with their soft ends to the center. Another taken in 1879, had a foundation of blue grass, and 

 upon this was placed a large handful of white goose feathers. The average nest is between these extremes 

 in quantity of material. 



289 



