186 



VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW. 



■f HlRUNDO THALASSINA, SwatUS. 



PLATE XLIX.— Male and Female. 



Of this, the most beautiful Swallow hitherto discovered within the limits 

 of the United States, the following account has been transmitted to me by 

 my friend Mr. Nuttall. "We first met with this elegant species within 

 the table-land of the Rocky Mountains, and they were particularly abundant 

 around our encampment on Harris Fork, a branch of the Colorado of the 

 west. They are nearly always associated with the Cliff Swallow, here like- 

 wise particularly numerous. Their flight and habits are also similar, but 

 their twitter is different, and not much unlike the note of our Barn Swallow. 

 In the Rocky Mountains, near our camp, we observed them to go In and out 

 of deserted nests of the Cliff Swallows, which they appeared to occupy in 

 place of building nests of their own. We saw this species afterwards flying 

 familiarly about in the vicinity of a farm-house (M. Le Boute's) on an 

 elevated small isolated prairie on the banks of the Wahlamet; and as there 

 are no cliffs in the vicinity, they probably here breed in trees, as I observed 

 the White-bellied Martin do. This beautiful species in all probability ex- 

 tends its limits from hence to the table-land of Mexico, where Mr. Bullock, 

 it seems, found it. 



Mr. Townsend, who afterwards had better opportunities of observing the 

 habits of this bird, thus speaks of it: — "Jlguila chin chin of the Chinook 

 Indians, inhabits the neighbourhood of the Colorado of the west, and breeds 

 along its margins on bluffs of clay, where it attaches a nest formed of mud 

 and grasses resembling in some measure that of the Cliff Swallow, but want- 

 ing the pendulous neck in that of the latter species. The eggs are four, of 

 a dark clay colour, with a few spots of reddish-brown at the larger end. 

 This species is also found abundant on the lower waters of the Columbia 

 River, where it breeds "in hollow trees." 



Mr. Townsend also informs me that in the neighbourhood of the Columbia 

 River, the Cliff Swallow attaches its nest to the trunks of trees, making it of 

 the same form and materials as elsewhere. From the above facts, and many 

 equally curious, which I have mentioned, respecting the variations exhibited 

 by birds in the manner of forming their nests, as well as in their size, mate- 

 rials, and situation, it will be seen that differences of this kind are not of so 

 much importance as has hitherto been supposed, in establishing distinctions 



