44 



GREEN-BLUE, OR WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW. 



HIEUNDO FIEiniS. 

 [Plate XXXVIIL— Fig. 3.] 



Pe ale's Museum, JVo, 7707. 



THIS is the species hitherto supposed by Europeans to be the 

 same with their common Martin, Hirundo urbica, a bird no where 

 to be found within the United States. The English Martin is blue 

 black above ; the present species greenish blue ; the former has the 

 whole rump white, and the legs and feet are covered with short 

 white downy feathers ; the latter has nothing of either. That ridi- 

 culous propensity in foreign writers, to consider most of our birds 

 as varieties of their own, has led them into many mistakes, which 

 it shall be the business of the author of the present work to point 

 out, decisively, wherever he may meet with them. 



The White-bellied Swallow arrives in Pennsylvania a few days 

 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 con- 

 sists 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 brood 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, particularly 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 



