228 
WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW. 
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 themselves in catching flies, picking 
them from my clothes, hair, &c, calling out occasionally as they ob- 
served some of their old companions passing the windows. 
Species III. IIIRUNDO VIRIDIS* 
WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW. 
[Plate XXXVIII. Fig. 3.] 
Tins is the species hitherto supposed by Europeans to be the same 
with their common Martin, Hirundo urbica, a bird nowhere 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 ridiculous 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 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, particularly in spring, all the while keep- 
ing 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 
* Hirundo bicolor, Vieill. Ois. de V Am. Sept. pi. 31. 
