GREEN-BLUE, OR WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW. 139 
fighting in the air for a quarter of an hour at a time, 
particularly in spring, all the while keeping 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 neighbourhood. About 
the middle of July, I observed many hundreds of these birds 
sitting on the flat sandy beach near the entrance of Great Egg 
Harbour. They were also very numerous among the myrtles 
of these low islands, completely covering some of the 
bushes. One man told me, that he saw one hundred and 
two shot at a single discharge. For some time before their 
departure, they subsist principally on the myrtle berries 
( Myrica cerifera ,) and become extremely fat. They leave us 
early in September. 
This species appears to have remained hitherto undescribed, 
owing to the misapprehension before mentioned. It is not 
perhaps quite so numerous as the preceding, and rarely 
associates with it to breed, never using mud of any kind in 
the construction of its nest. 
The White-bellied Swallow is five inches and three quar- 
ters long, and twelve inches in extent ; bill and eye, black ; 
upper parts, a light glossy greenish blue; wings, brown black, 
with slight reflections of green ; tail, forked, the two exterior 
feathers being about a quarter of an inch longer than the 
middle ones, and all of a uniform brown black; lores, black; 
whole lower parts, pure white; wings, when shut, extend 
about a quarter of an inch beyond the tail; legs, naked, short, 
and strong, and, as well as the feet, of a dark purplish flesh 
colour; claws, stout. 
The female has much less of the greenish gloss than the 
male, the colours being less brilliant; otherwise alike. 
