GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, AND OLIVE 445 



voracious appetites to satisfy he came and went in pre- 

 occupied silence. In two weeks the babies had filled 

 the nest to overflowing and were fairly crowded out of 

 it. Then the trials of the father bird really began, for 

 they tagged him from twig to twig with open mouths 

 and quivering wings. In vain he tried to swallow a bite 

 himself. Often he seemed to hesitate between the de- 

 mands of his own hunger and the entreaties of his already 

 too full fledglings, but he usually sacrificed himself to 

 them. In every instance the mother helped faithfully, 

 and in one case she alone fed a nestling almost as large 

 as herself, at the rate of six bugs in three minutes. Some- 

 times she liberated one in front of him, in an effort to 

 teach him to hunt for himself, but he was the only young 

 Flycatcher I have ever seen refuse to try to catch an in- 

 sect ; he would not budge. This little comedy was 

 played all one day, and early the next morning the worn 

 and weary little mother was seen alone, no trace of the ■ 

 overgrown youngster could be found, nor did she seem 

 to care. She called restlessly awhile, but about noon 

 began to enjoy life with the rest of her kin and to forget 

 the cares of yesterday. 



615. NORTHERN VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW. 



Tachycineta thalassina lepida. 



Family : The Swallows. 



Length: 4.75-5.50. 



Adult Male : Top of head, hind-neck, back, and scapulars rich green, 

 either the head, neck, or dorsal region, or both, usually tinged with 

 bronze or purple ; rump and upper tail-coverts violet, shaded with 

 purple ; wing-coverts violet, edged with green ; a white patch on each 



