186 
VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW. 
Hirundo thalassina, Swains. 
PLATE XLIX. — Male and Female. 
Of this, the most beautiful Swallow hitherto discovered within the limits 
of the United States, the following account has been transmitted to me by 
my friend Mr. Nuttall. “ We first met with this elegant species within 
the table-land of the Rocky Mountains, and they were particularly abundant 
around our encampment on Harris Fork, a branch of the Colorado of the 
west. They are nearly always associated with the Cliff Swallow, here 
likewise particularly numerous. Their flight and habits are also similar, but 
their twitter is different, and not much unlike the note of our Barn Swallow. 
In the Rocky Mountains, near our camp, we observed them to go in and out 
of deserted nests of the Cliff Swallows, which they appeared to occupy in 
place of building nests of their own. We saw this species afterwards flying 
familiarly about in the vicinity of a farm-house (M. Le Boute’s) on an 
elevated small isolated prairie on the banks of the Wahlamet ; and as there 
are no cliffs in the vicinity, they probably here breed in trees, as I observed 
the White-bellied Martin do. This beautiful species in all probability 
extends its limits from hence to the table-land of Mexico, where Mr. 
Bullock, it seems, found it. 
Mr. Townsend, who afterwards had better opportunities of observing the 
habits of this bird, thus speaks of it : — “ Aguila chin chin of the Chinook 
Indians, inhabits the neighbourhood of the Colorado of the west, and breeds 
along its margins on bluffs of clay, where it attaches a nest formed of mud 
and grasses resembling in some measure that of the Cliff Swallow, but 
wanting the pendulous neck in that of the latter species. The eggs are 
four, of a dark clay colour, with a few spots of reddish-brown at the larger 
end. This species is also found abundant on the lower waters of the 
. Columbia river, where it breeds in hollow trees 
Mr. Townsend also informs me that in the neighbourhood of the Columbia 
river, the Cliff Swallow attaches its nest to the trunks of trees, making it of 
the same form and materials as elsewhere. From the above facts, and many 
equally curious, which I have mentioned, respecting the variations exhibited 
by birds in the manner of forming their nests, as well as in their size, mate- 
rials, and situation, it will be seen that differences of this kind are not of so 
much importance as has hitherto been supposed, in establishing distinctions 
