BIRDS OF DURHAM AND VICINITY. 
81 
Tachycineta bicolor. Tree Swallow. 
614. 
The VVlute-bellied, or Tree Swallow, is the earliest of its tribe to 
arrive in spring, coming when the weather is suitable as early as the 
fourth of April, according to my notes. It still nests, now and then, 
in old woodpecker holes, but not as a rule. A bird house is more to 
its liking, and even a rat hole in the roof of a dwelling answers all 
purposes. It is a good fighter and engages in many a conflict, both 
offensive and defensive, with English Sparrows, Bluebirds, and Mar- 
tins before they are all settled. They do not employ mud in nest 
building, as Barn and Cliff Swallows do, but limit their materials to dry 
grass and feathers. Soon after the young are strong, which is about 
the first of August, they all disperse and only an occasional one is 
seen afterward, usually accompanied by Barn Swallows. The latest 
flight that I ever saw passed in a scattered flock over Hampton marshes 
September 5, 1889. 
Riparia riparia. Bank Swallow. 616. 
I do not know that there is a family of Bank Swallows in this vicin- 
ity. Certainly Durham clay is not what they require for mining pur- 
poses. The fact that they are the most local of the swallow family is 
undoubtedly clue to the comparative rarity of sand banks of suitable 
consistency for safe tunneling. I have never had an opportunity to 
observe the time of their coming, though I have sometimes seen them 
in company with other swallows toward the end of summer, but never 
later than the twentieth of August. Bank Swallows are not always 
easy to distinguish from female Tree Swallows, but a Tree Swallow 
does not have the dusky bar across its breast that is always present 
on the Bank Swallow. The nest is a slight aftair composed wholly of 
grass, the cavity containing it varying in length from eight to eighteen 
inches. 
Cedar Birds are usually reckoned with the summer residents, but 
they are quite able to withstand the cold of winter, and sometimes do 
so. On the tenth of February, 1900, I saw a flock of twenty-eight, 
contentedly preening themselves in an apple tree near Thompson hall, 
after a meal of red cedar berries from trees near by. On the fifteenth 
Family AMPELID^ 
Ampelis cedrorum. Cedar Bird. 
619. 
21 
