177 
THE REPUBLICAN OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 
Hirundo fulya, Vieill. 
PLATE XLVII. — Male, Female, aa t d Hest. 
In the spring- of 1815, I for the first time saw a few individuals of this 
species at Henderson, on the banks of the Ohio, a hundred and twenty miles 
below the Falls of that river. It was an excessively cold morning, and 
nearly all were killed by the severity of the weather. I drew up a descrip- 
tion at the time, naming the species Hirundo republicana, the Republican 
Swallow , in allusion to the mode in which the individuals belonging to it 
associate, for the purpose of forming their nests and rearing their young. 
Unfortunately, through the carelessness of my assistant, the specimens were 
lost, and I despaired for years of meeting with others. 
In the year 1819, my hopes were revived by Mr. Robert Best, curator 
of the Western Museum at Cincinnati, who informed me that a strange 
species of bird had made its appearance in the neighbourhood, building nests 
in clusters, affixed to the walls. In consequence of this information, I 
immediately crossed the Ohio to Newport, in Kentucky, where he had seen 
many nests the preceding season ; and no sooner were" we landed than the 
chirruping of my long-lost little strangers saluted my ear. Numbers of 
them were busily engaged in repairing the damage done to their nests by 
the storms of the preceding winter. 
Major Oldham of the United States Army, then commandant of the 
garrison, politely offered us the means of examining the settlement of these 
birds, attached to the walls of the building under his charge. He informed 
us, that, in 1815, he first saw a few of them working against the wall of the 
house, immediately under the eaves and cornice; that their work was carried 
on rapidly and peaceably, and that as soon as the young were able to travel, 
they all departed. Since that period, they had returned every spring, and 
then amounted to several hundreds. They usually appeared about the 10th 
of April, and immediately began their work, which was at that moment, it 
being then the 20th of that month, going on in a regular manner, against the 
walls of the arsenal. They had about fifty nests quite finished, and others in 
progress. 
About day-break they flew down to the shore of the river, one hundred 
yards distant, for the muddy sand, of which the nests were constructed, and 
worked with great assiduity until near the middle of the day, as if aware that 
Vol. I. 27 
