WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW. 287 



The Swallows are serial Fly-catchers, never taking food except on the 

 wing, for which their structure especially adapts them. The Barn Swal- 

 low is the best known, and, on the whole, the most abundant, and most 

 universally semi-domesticated with us of the family. I have never 

 known them to nest otherwise than in barns, sheds, under the roof of 

 bridges or other buildings. In uninhabited regions they build their 

 nests in caves, and Dr. Coues states that in the Northwest he found them 

 nesting in small holes and crevices in a perpendicular bank. 



The nest, as the name of the bird implies, is usually placed in the in- 

 interior of a barn, under the roof, attached to the beams and rafters. 

 Sometimes as many as fifty pairs occupy the same barn. The nest is 

 composed of pellets of mud and bits of straw, sometimes with a projecting 

 shelf, which serves as a roost for one or both of the parents. Several 

 broods are raised in a season. The eggs are very variable in shape, aver- 

 aging .78 to .56, white, spotted and blotched with bright reddish-brown. 



Genus TACHYCINETA. Cabanis. 



Nostrila lateral, overhung or bordered inteiDally by incnmbeut membrane. Tarsi 

 about equal to middle toe without claw, with tibial extremity covered with overhang- 

 ing feathers, adherent a short distance aloDg inner face. Lateral toes equal. Adhesion 

 of basal joint of middle toe variable. Tail emarginate only, or slightly iorked, fork not 

 exceeding half an inch in depth. 



Tachycineta bicolor (V.) Cab. 



White-beUied. SwaUo-w. 



Sirundo iicolor, Kirtland, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 162. — Read, Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. 



8oi., vi, 1853, 395.— Kikkpatbick, Ohio Farmer, viii, 1859, 243.— WiiEATON, Ohio 



Agric Eep. for 1860, 1861, 264; Reprint, 6.— Langdon, Revised List, Journ. Gin. 



Soo. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 173; Reprint, 7. 

 Taohycineta bioolor, Whbaton, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 1875, 565 ; 



Reprint, 5. — Langdon, Cat. Birds of Gin., 1877, 7; Journ. Gin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 



1878, 113; Reprint, 4. 

 White-bellied Swallow, Ballou, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 136. 



Hirundo bicolor, Vibillot, Ois. Am. Sept., i, 1807, 61. 

 Taehj/cineta bicolor, Cabanis, IVIub. Hein., i, 1850, 48. 



Lustrous green; below, pure white. Young similar, not so glossy. Length, 6-6J; 

 wing, 5; tail, 2^. 



Habitat, Temperate America. 



Very common summer resident. Somewhat irregular in its distribu- 

 tion during the breeding season. Arrives early in April and remains 

 until September. The White-bellied Swallow is, in the vicinity of Co- 

 lumbus, rather rare except during the migrations ; formerly they were 



