BANK SWALLOW. 229 



neighborhood. About the middle of July I observed many hundreds of 

 these birds sitting on the flat sandy beach near the entrance of Great 

 Egg Harbor. They were also very numerous among the myrtles of 

 these low islands, completely covering some of the bushes. One man 

 told me, that he saw one hundred and two shot at a single discharge. 

 For some time before their departure they subsist principally on the 

 myrtle berries {Myrica cerifera) and become extremely fat. They leave 

 us early in September. • 



This species appears to have remained hitherto undescribed, owing to 

 the misapprehension before mentioned. It is not perhaps quite so nu- 

 merous as the preceding, and rarely associates with it to breed, never 

 using mud of any kind in the construction of its nest. 



The White-bellied Swallow is five inches and three quarters long, and 

 twelve inches in extent ; bill and eye black ; upper parts a light glossy 

 greenish blue ; wings brown black, with slight reflections of green ; tail 

 forked, the two exterior feathers being about a quarter of an inch longer 

 than the middle ones, and all of a uniform brown black ; lores black ; 

 whole lower parts pure white ; wings when shut extend about a quarter 

 of an inch beyond the tail ; legs naked, short and strong, and, as well as 

 the feet, of a dark purplish flesh color ; claws stout. 



The female has much less of the greenish gloss than the male, the 

 colors being less brilliant ; otherwise alike. 



Species IV. HIBVNDO RIPARIA* 



BANK SWALLOW, or SAND MARTIN. 



[Plate XXXVIII. Fig. 4.] 



Lath. Syn. ly., 568-10. — Arct. Zool. ii., No. 332. — L'Hirondelle de rivage, Buff. 

 VI., 632. PI. Enl. 543, f. 2.— Turt. Syst. 629. 



This appears to be the most sociable with its kind and the least inti- 

 mate with man, of all our Swallows ; living together in large communi- 

 ties of sometimes three or four hundred. On the high sandy bank of a 

 river, quarry, or gravel pit, at a foot or two from the surface, they com- 

 monly scratch out holes for their nests, running them in a horizontal 

 direction to the depth of two and sometimes three feet. Several of 

 these holes are often within a few inches of each other, and extend in 

 various strata along the front of the precipice, sometimes for eighty or 

 one hundred yards. At the extremity of this hole a little fine dry grass 



*LiNN. Syst. I., p. 344. — Gmel. Syst. i., p. 1019. — Lath. Ind. Orn. n., p. 575. 



