BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



305 



in a high gravel-bank near Concord Avenue, a little to the northwestward of 

 Fresh Pond. This was the only really noteworthy breeding place which has 

 existed in the Cambridge Region within my recollection, although in still earlier 

 times a colony, which Colonel T. W. Higginson assures me was the largest that 

 he has ever seen anywhere, occupied a bank bordering the roadside at Simon's 

 Hill, about where the Cambridge Hospital now stands. The latter locality, no 

 doubt, was that referred to by Lowell, in 'My Garden Acquaintance, '^ in the 

 following words : " The bank-swallows, wellnigh innumerable during my boyhood, 

 no longer frequent the crumbly cliff of the gravel-pit by the river." 



The colony at Fresh Pond was mercilessly raided by boys, as well as dis- 

 turbed by constant carting away of gravel, but the birds continued to maintain it 

 as long as the bank kept its vertical face. We used to see them skimming every- 

 where over the neighboring ponds and marshes in May, June and July, and they 

 often visited Rock Meadow during these months. In August, when the migra- 

 tory flights were passing southward, they also frequented the salt marshes along 

 Charles River, sometimes in countless numbers. They still occur rather plenti- 

 fully at all these places during migration, but we seldom see them now at other 

 seasons and I cannot learn of any locality in the Cambridge Region where one 

 may be sure of finding them breeding at the present time. Mr. Richard S. 

 Eustis tells me, that as lately as 1902 five or six pairs nested in a gravel 

 bank near Pout Pond, not far from where the large colony was formerly estab- 

 lished but on the opposite {i. e. northern) side of Concord Avenue. He doubts 

 if any of the birds succeeded in rearing young, for most of their holes were 

 dug out by boys soon after the eggs had been laid. 



[Stelgidopteryx serripennis (Aud.). Rough-winged Swallow. An entry in my journal 

 relating to a visit which I made on May 24, 1884, to Rock Meadow, Belmont, in company with 

 the late Mr. Walter E. Bryant of California, contains the following passage: " Shortly after- 

 ward I saw a pair of Stelgidofteryx serripennis flying over some muddy ground where the 

 meadow grass had been burned. They frequently alighted, once in the road within long gun- 

 range, but I could not get sufHciently near them to use my collecting-pistol, the only weapon I 

 had with me. Finally they circled off and disappeared." 



At the time this incident happened I was perfectly familiar with the Rough-winged Swallow 

 in life, and accustomed by long practice to distinguish it, both when on wing and at rest, from 

 the Bank Swallow. Although the birds found at Rock Meadow were too shy to be closely 

 approached, they were seen, as I distinctly remember, under conditions which enabled me to 

 make out all the details of their color and markings, as well as to note their characteristic 

 manner of flight. Had the case been otherwise, I should not have ventured to identify them 

 so confidently. Nevertheless I do not expect — nor even wish — my observation to be regarded 

 by ornithologists as furnishing a wholly satisfactory and definite record. Indeed it should 

 not be very seriously considered until the Rough-winged Swallow has been actually taken in. 



' J. R. Lowell, Atlantic Almanac for 1869, 1868, 37. 



