177 



THE REPUBLICAN OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 



^Hirundo fulva, Vieill. 



PLATE XLVIL— Male, Female, and Nests. 



In the spring of 1S15, I for the first time saw a few individuals of this 

 species at Henderson, on the banks of the Ohio, a hundred and twenty miles 

 below the Falls of that river. It was an excessively cold morning, and near- 

 ly all were killed by the severity of the weather. I drew up a description 

 at the time, naming the species Hirundo rejmblicana, the Republican 

 Swallow, in allusion to the mode in which the individuals belonging to it 

 associate, for the purpose of forming their nests and rearing their young. 

 Unfortunately, through the carelessness of my assistant, the specimens were 

 lost, and I despaired for years of meeting with others. 



In the year 1819, my hopes were revived by Mr. Robert Best, curator 

 of the Western Museum at Cincinnati, who informed me that a strange spe- 

 cies of bird had made its appearance in the neighbourhood, building nests in 

 clusters, affixed to the walls. In consequence of this information, I imme- 

 diately crossed the Ohio to Newport, in Kentucky, where he had seen many 

 nests the preceding season; and no sooner were we landed than the chirrup- 

 ing of my long-lost little strangers saluted my ear. Numbers of them were 

 busily engaged in repairing the damage done to their nests by the storms of 

 the preceding winter. 



Major Oldham of the United States Army, then commandant of the gar- 

 rison, politely offered us the means of examining the settlement of these 

 birds, attached to the walls of the building under his charge. He informed 

 us, that, in 1815, he first saw a few of them working against the wall of the 

 house, immediately under the eaves and cornice; that their work was carried 

 on rapidly and peaceably, and that as soon as the young were able to travel, 

 they all departed. Since that period, they had returned every spring, and 

 then amounted to several hundreds. They usually appeared about the 10th 

 of April, and immediately began their work, which was at that moment, it 

 being then the 20th of that month, going on in a regular manner, against the 

 walls of the arsenal. They had about fifty nests quite finished, and others in 

 progress. 



About day-break they flew down to the shore of the river, one hundred 

 yards distant, for the muddy sand, of which the nests were constructed, and 

 worked with great assiduity until near the middle of the day, as if aware that 



Vol. I. 27 



