140 GREEN-BLUE, OR WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW. 



later than the preceding species. It often takes possession of 

 an apartment in the boxes appropriated to the purple martin ; 

 and also frequently builds and hatches in a hollow tree. The 

 nest consists of fine loose dry grass, lined with large downy 

 feathers, rising above its surface, and so placed as to curl 

 inwards, and completely conceal the eggs. These last are 

 usually four or five in number, and pure white. They also 

 have two broods in the season. 



The voice of this species is low and guttural ; they are 

 more disposed to quarrel than the barn swallows, frequently 

 fighting in the air for a quarter of an hour at a time, particu- 

 larly in spring, all the while keeping up a low rapid chatter. 

 They also sail more in flying ; but, during the breeding 

 season, frequent the same situations in quest of similar food. 

 They inhabit the northern Atlantic States as far as the 

 district of Maine, where I have myself seen them ; and my 

 friend Mr Gardiner informs me that they are found on the 

 coast of Long Island and its neighbourhood. About the 

 middle of July, I observed many hundreds of these birds 

 sitting on a flat sandy beach near the entrance of Great Egg 

 Harbour. They were also very numerous among the myrtles 

 of these low islands, completely covering some of the bushes. 

 One man told me that he saw one hundred and two shot at a 

 single discharge. For sometime before their departure, they 

 subsist principally on the myrtle berries (Jtfyrica cerifera) , and 

 become extremely fat. They leave us early in September. 



This species appears to have remained hitherto undescribed, 

 owing to the misapprehension before mentioned. It is not 

 perhaps quite so numerous as the preceding, and rarely 

 associates with it to breed, never using mud of any kind in 

 the construction of its nest. 



The white-bellied swallow is five inches and three quarters 

 long, and twelve inches in extent ; bill and eye, black ; upper 

 parts, a light glossy greenish blue ; wings, brown black, with 

 slight reflections of green; tail, forked, the two exterior 

 feathers being about a quarter of an inch longer than the 



