GREEN-BLUE, OR WHITE -BELLIED SWALLOW. 357 
of the author of the present work to point out, decisively, wherever he 
may meet with them. 
The White-bellied Swallow arrives in Pennsylvania a few days 
later than the preceding species. It often takes possession of an 
apartment in the boxes appropriated to the Purple Martin; and also 
frequently builds and hatches in a hollow tree. The nest consists of 
fine, loose, dry grass, lined with large, downy feathers, rising above its 
surface, and so placed as to curl inwards, and completely conceal the 
eggs. These last are usually four or five in number, and pure white. 
They also have two broods in the season. 
The voice of this species is low and guttural; they are more dis- 
posed to quarrel than the Barn Swallows, frequently fighting in the air 
for a quarter of an hour at a time, particularly in spring, all the while 
keeping up a low, rapid chatter. They also sail more in flying; but, 
during the breeding season, frequent the same situations in quest of 
similar food. They inhabit the northern Atlantic States as far as the 
District of Maine, where I have myself seen them; and my friend Mr. 
Gardiner informs me, that they are found on the coast of Long Island 
and its neighborhood. About the middle of July, I observed many 
hundreds of these birds sitting on the flat sandy beach near the en- 
trance 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 ex- 
tremely 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 
numerous 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. 
