ACCOUNTS OP THE VIOLET-GEEEN SWALLOW 421 



Who may have been the first to find it in the United States 

 I do not know; but Townsend and Nuttall furnished the 

 whole of Audubon's account, published in 1838, about the time 

 Townsend communicated his discoveries to the Philadelphia 

 Academy, as recorded in their " Journal " for 1837 and 1839. 

 These writers both speak of finding it on some tributaries 

 of the Colorado Eiver, and the first named says that it builds 

 a nest of mud and hay on clay bluffs, and lays four eggs, "of a 

 dark clay colour, with a few spots of reddish-brown"; and 

 adds that on the Columbia Eiver it breeds in hollow trees. 

 The latter statement is correct ; in making the former. Town- 

 send seems to have got the species mixed with the Cliff Swal- 

 low. Nuttall says that they appeared to occupy nests of the 

 Cliff Swallow, instead of building for themselves, and sup- 

 poses them to sometimes breed in trees. Audubon supplied 

 Dr. Brewer with a drawing of an egg of this species, got by 

 Nuttall in Oregon, which Dr. Brewer says was the first knowl- 

 edge he acquired of the " markings " of the egg. The error 

 about the egg and nidification flourished beyond 1857, when 

 Dr. Brewer elaborated it with care, describing and figuring 

 the speckled egg of the Cliff or Barn Swallow as that of the 

 Violet-green, and discrediting Nuttall's observation respect- 

 ing the probable nesting of the species in trees. The fact is, 

 that the Violet-green Swallow nests in holes in trees and 

 elsewhere, and lays a pure white egg, exactly like T. bicolor. 



Meanwhile, in 1846-47, Dr. William Gambel published the 

 species from his observations in California ; and in 1853 Dr. S. 

 W. Woodhouse spoke of it as abundant in New Mexico. Then 

 came the period of the observers of the Pacific Eailroad and 

 Mexican Boundary Surveys, who severally added to the his- 

 tory of the bird, and enabled Professor Baird to place it on the 

 well-known footing of 1858. Drs. A. L. Heermann and T. C. 

 Henry found it at Fort Thorne on the Eio Grande — the former 

 also at Tejon Pass in California. Drs. Cooper and Suckley 

 noted its arrival at Puget Sound early in May, about the 10th, 

 and observed its building in knot-holes of trees, especially 

 oaks, and in deserted woodpeckers*^ boles. Shortly afterward, 

 Dr. Hayden collected many specimens in the Wind Eiver 

 Mountains, in the present Territory of Wyoming, furnishing 

 one of the most northeasterly records we possess — for some 

 writers of repute, who say that the bird " has been found as 



