SUMMER BIRDS. 
I 54 
tion, while some of its louder notes, especially when divested 
through distance of their accompaniment, sound strikingly like the 
song of the latest mentioned species. 
FAMILY AMPELIDFE : WAXWINGS. 
Ampelis cedroruin (Vieill.) Baird. Cedar Waxwing. 
Not uncommon. A nest built in a hemlock, against the trunk, 
about seven feet from the ground, contained five fresh eggs, June 1 5 , 
1880. Descriptions of two nests were recorded by my brothers ; 
one was built in the top of a soft maple about twenty-five feet high, 
July 10, 1874 ! the other, found three days later, was built about ten 
feet from the ground in an apple tree, and contained five eggs with 
large embryos. 
FAMILY HIRUN DINIDAD : SWALLOWS. 
As has been earlier remarked there are but two swallows which occur as 
summer residents in that section of the Catskills here considered, though 
at least one other is found in the immediate region. 
Undoubtedly the Bank Swallow ( Cotile riparia Baird) occurs at suitable 
localities, and the Purple Martin (. Progne subis Baird) may also be locally 
represented. One species of the Hudson Valley is excluded — Stelgidopteryx. 
Petrockelidon lunifrons (Say) Lawr. Cliff Swallow. 
An abundant, familiar, and characteristic species of the valleys. 
The nests of a colony, located under the eaves of an old barn in the 
Big Indian Valley, were examined June 17, 1881, and again the next 
year, ten days later in the season. On the former occasion the closest 
approach to the singular retort-shaped structure which this species is 
so well known to construct, was a semi-globular mud shell with a 
simple opening on the side no larger than was necessary for the ad- 
mission of the birds. Most of the nests were of a still more simple 
form, being merely shallow cups of mud, plastered against the per- 
pendicular boards close up under the eaves. Among the different 
nests every gradation between these diverse styles was to be seen. 
In some of the cup-shaped structures one or both sides had been con- 
tinued upward to the eaves above from behind forward to enclose an 
opening of varying size in the front wall. Though the young were 
well advanced the work of building was still being carried on, as 
shown by fresh pellets of mud in some of the nests, so placed as to 
reduce the opening; and it was evident that if building operations 
continued until the young were Hedged, the most open nests would 
