WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW. 157 



specked with reddish-brown and lilac; they are often spot- 

 ted and blotched with darker brown and blackish, and often 

 scratched and scrawled with black as with a pen, after the 

 manner of the eggs of the Icterida. 



As the first brood may be hatched here by the middle of 

 May, the abundance of nests in all the fields brings them 

 in contact with the plow in great numbers; and as the eggs 

 of the second or last brood may be fresh about the 4th of 

 July, many nests are destroyed in the hay-field. The losses 

 sustained therefore by this bird in nidification are probably 

 greater by far than those of any other species in the locality. 



Habitat, the United States from ocean to ocean, and 

 reported by Dr. Richardson from the Saskatchawan. 

 Winters abundantly in the Southern States, and breeds from 

 the southern Middle States northward, becoming very rare 

 in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 



WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW. 



About the first or second week in April the White-bellied 

 Swallow {Tachycineta bicolor) makes its appearance. This 

 earliest arrival of its very interesting family is most likely 

 to be seen alftng streams or ponds; and while it exceeds 

 but a little the average size of the different kinds of Swal- 

 lows — for excepting the Purple or Black Martin (Progne 

 purpurea), the Swallows differ but slightly in dimensions — 

 it is readily distinguished by its simple markings of glossy 

 greenish-black above, and pure white beneath, whence its 

 specific name Bicolor, or two-colored. In purity and ele- 

 gance of color it surpasses all the rest of its family in this 

 locality, and is itself surpassed on this continent only by 

 the exquisite beauty of the Rocky Mountains and the 

 Pacific Coast, known .as the Violet-green Swallow {Tachy- 

 cineta thalassina). Its notes are particularly soft and musical 



