138 GREEN-BLUE, OR WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW. 



feather, except the two middle ones, marked on its inner vane 

 with an oblong spot of white ; lores, black ; eye, dark hazel ; 

 sides of the mouth, yellow ; legs, dark purple. 



The female differs from the male in having the belly and 

 vent rufous white, instead of light chestnut ; these parts are 

 also slightly clouded with rufous ; and the exterior tail-feathers 

 are shorter. 



These birds are easily tamed, and soon become exceedingly 

 gentle and familiar. I have frequently kept them in my 

 room for several days at a time, where they employed them- 

 selves in catching flies, picking them from my clothes, hair, 

 &c, calling out occasionally as they observed some of their 

 old companions passing the windows. 



GREEN-BLUE, OR WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW. 



{Hirundo viridis.) 



PLATE XXXVIII.— Fig. 3. 



Peale's Museum, No. 7707. 

 HIRUNDO BICOLOR.— Vieillot.* 



Hirundo viridis, Aud. Ann. Lye. of Neio York, i. p. 166. — The "White-bellied 

 Swallow, Aud. Orn. Biog. i. p. 491, pi. 98.— Hirundo bicolor, Bonap. Synop- 

 p. 65. — North. Zool. ii. p. 328. 



This is the species hitherto supposed by Europeans to be the 

 same with their common martin, Hirvndo urbica, a bird 

 nowhere to be found within the United States. The English 



* This beautiful and highly curious little bird has, like the last, been 

 confused with a European species, H. urbica. Gmelin and Latham, 

 esteem it only a variety, while other writers make it identical. From 

 the European martin it may always at once be distinguished by want- 

 ing the purely white rump, so conspicuous during the flight of the 

 former. The priority of the name will be in favour of Vieillot, and it 

 should stand as //. bicolor of that naturalist. 



The martins possess a greater preponderance of power in the wings 

 over the tail than the swallows ; and their flight, as our author remarks, 

 is consequently more like sailing than flying. All their turns are round 

 and free, and performed most frequently in large sweeps, without any 



