The Northern Violet-green Swallow 
central Alaska and Yukon; wintering sparingly in southern California and in Mexico, 
south to Guatemala and Costa Rica. 
Distribution in California. —Abundant migrant throughout the State. Breeds 
in the mountains and throughout the State at Transitional levels; also well down into 
Upper Sonoran zone in the coastal valleys, and upon the southern coastal ranges— 
altitudinal breeding range from sea-level to about 10,000 (Granite Basin, eastern 
Fresno Co., July 13, 1913). Winters sparingly in the Imperial Valley and casually 
in the San Diegan district, north to Santa Barbara (Dec. 19-24, 1914; Dec. 24, 1918). 
However, most February records and some in January are of returning migrants. 
Accidental (?) on the Farallons (June 1st, 1911). 
Authorities.—Audubon (Hirundo thalassina, Synop. Birds N. Am., 1839, p. 
36 (“California”); Ridgway , Orn. 40th Parallel, 1877, p. 443 (Nevada; habits; nesting 
in rocks); Coues, Birds Col. Val., 1878, p. 419 (syn., habits, desc., etc;; see also p. 
364); Mearns, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., vol. xv., 1902, p. 31 (Tachycineta lepida, orig. 
desc.; type locality Campbell’s Ranch, Laguna Mts., San Diego Co.); Beal, U. S. 
Dept. Agric., Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 30, 1907, p. 32 (food). 
IF WE lavished any superlatives on the Tree Swallow—and our 
memory misgives us that we did—we regret it now. Not but that the 
Tree Swallow is strictly deserving—oh, a very deserving bird—but we 
needed all our superlatives for present use, and one hates to repeat. What 
shall we do for the Violet-green Swallows? Simply this: we will call them 
children of heaven. 
To appear to the best advantage, this child of heaven should be seen 
on a typical California day, burning bright, when the livid green of back 
and crown may reflect the ardent glances of the sun with a delicate golden 
sheen. The violet of upper tail-coverts and rump comes to view only 
in changing flashes; but one catches such visions as a beggar flung coins, 
and adds image to image until he has a full concept of this rainbow hue. 
At such a time, if one is clambering about the skirting of some rugged 
precipice in Yosemite, he feels as if the dwellers of Olympus had come 
down in appropriate guise to inquire his earth-born business. Not, how¬ 
ever, that these lovely creatures are either meddlesome or shrewish. Even 
when the nest is threatened by the strange presence, the birds seem unable 
to form any conception of harm, and pursue their way in sunny disregard. 
Especially pleasing to the eye is the pure white of the bird’s underparts, 
rising high on flanks and cheeks, and sharply contrasting with the pattern 
of violet and green, in such fashion that, if Nature had invited us to 
“remold it nearer to the heart’s desire,” we must have declined the task. 
Before the advent of the white man in California these birds nested, 
altogether, as they still do largely, in deserted woodpecker holes and in 
natural cavities in trees, or in the fastnesses of rocky cliffs. In the last- 
named situations they utilize the rocky clefts and inaccessible crannies, 
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