Violet-green Swallow 421 
The following are some of the recorded localities: Boulder 
(Henderson), Denver (Henshaw), El Paso co. (Allen), Pueblo (Aiken) 
along the foothills; Estes Park (Kellogg), Idaho Springs (Trippe), 
Twin Lakes (Scott), Wet Mountains (Lowe), on the eastern slope of 
the mountains, Grand Lake in Middle Park, and Crested Butte (Warren), 
Mesa co., abundant, breeding above 6,000 feet (Rockwell), San Juan 
co. (Drew), and La Plata co. (Morrison) on the western slope. 
Habits.—This is by far the most brilliantly coloured of 
our Swallows, and is of a somewhat gregarious nature, as 
is generally the case with these birds. Morrison states 
that he has often seen large numbers during a storm, 
huddled together on a dead limb near their homes, 
waiting for the weather to moderate, when they once 
more take to the wing to feed. They are also rather 
pugnacious birds, fighting with one another for the 
possession of a suitable nesting-hole. In the natural state 
they appear to nest indifferently in holes in trees, or 
in crevices in rocks and sand-banks, but they are com- 
mencing to make use of crevices and crannies in barns 
and outbuildings of ranches like the other birds of this 
family. 
Dennis Gale states that at Gold Hill they are late 
breeders. He found fresh eggs from June 20th to July 
10th ; in most cases the nest-holes of Woodpeckers were 
made use of; the nests were made of grass, generally 
retaining some of its green colour, and lined with feathers ; 
the eggs, five or six in number, are pure white. 
Genus RIPARIA. 
Rather small Swallows—wing under 4-5—with small slender bills 
and elongated oval nostrils overhung by an operculum; tail about 
half the length of its wing, moderately forked ; tarsus with a tuft of 
smal] feathers on its posterior edge near the joint of the hind toe ; claws 
rather long and slender, that of the hallux exceeding its digit. Sexes 
alike ; eggs white. 
A widely spread genus, found over the greater part of the world, 
but with only one American species. 
