The Rough-winged Swallow and Duck Hawk near Springfield, Mass. 
— Stelgidopteryx serripennis. A Rough-winged Swallow was captured 
by William Dearden in Longmeadow, near Springfield, May 17, 1906. 
There is no previous record of the occurrence of an individual of this species 
in the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts since 1851. 
( ZVL (j) , }W0' 
Co^M f y '-Y-tt 1 , < ( ( 7 0 ^ > jp- _ 
The Rough-winged Swallow ■(, Stelgidopteryx serripennis) Breeding 
near Springfield, Mass. — In the July number of ‘The Auk,’ I reported the 
capture of a Rough-winged Swallow at Longmeadow near Springfield. 
Afterwards, not far from the place where this one was taken, three more 
were observed, and a pair of these were found to be breeding. The site 
of the nest was located in a ravine two hundred feet long, washed out a 
few years ago from a bluff twenty feet above the flood plain of the Con- 
necticut River. This pair were successful in raising their young. I 
noticed that they flew low and did not pause in their flight, as do the Bam 
Swallows; they often came to feed their young through the woods adja- 
cent to a portion of the ravine, flying not more than ten feet from the 
ground. — Robert 0. Morris, Springfield, Mass. , _ 
.7 6,3. 
Breeding of the Rough-winged Swallow in Berkshire County, Mas- 
sachusetts. — On July 3, 1906, as I was waiting for a train at the railroad 
station in Glendale, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, I saw a pair of 
Rough-winged Swallows flying back and forth over the Housatonic River. 
Skimming just above the surface of the rapidly flowing water they passed 
and repassed the station very many times, giving me excellent opportuni- 
ties for making out their characteristic coloring and markings. Once 
they alighted on a large, flat-topped boulder at the water’s edge where 
they moved about by a succession of short, quick runs, reminding me of 
Semipalmated Plover feeding on a sand beach. I have never before seen 
swallows of any kind move so quickly by the aid of their feet alone. After 
drinking at a pool of rain water which had collected in a hollow in the rock, 
these birds took wing again and resumed their regular, coursing flights. 
They frequently passed under a bridge by which the road from the vil- 
lage to the station crosses the river, and twice they turned sharply 
upwards and disappeared for a moment among its supporting rafters, 
which were twenty-five or thirty feet above the water. Suspecting that 
they might have a nest there I went out on the bridge, but I could not 
well see under it. On a telephone wire stretched across the river near the 
bridge I found, however, three young Rough-winged Swallows, fully grown 
and feathered, clamoring loudly for food, which their parents brought to 
them every few minutes. I had a fine view of these young birds, for they 
were perched in full sunlight within ten or twelve yards of me. Probably 
there were one or two others of the brood under the bridge, but of this I 
could not make sure. Two of those on the wire sat facing me, showing 
very distinctly the rich, reddish brown or fulvous markings on the throat 
and upper part of the breast, which are so characteristic of the young of 
Stelgidopteryx serripennis. Their plumage was wholly free from down, 
and their wings and tails appeared to be of full length. They must have 
been out of the nest for a week or more, but I consider it probable that 
they were hatched and reared in the immediate neighborhood. Although 
from the first I had entertained no doubts as to the identity of the old 
birds, I was glad of the opportunity here afforded for directly comparing 
them with a number of Bank Swallows which were flying about over the 
river just above the bridge. Whenever the two species came together 
it was easy to distinguish them, almost at a glance, for the Rough-wings 
looked a third larger and very much browner than the Bank Swallows, 
and they showed no traces of the dark pectoral band so conspicuous in the 
latter birds. — .William Brewster. Cambridge, Mass. 
Auk, 2€, Apr., 1907, p. 
