320 
FULVOUS, OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 
manner of building. Mr de Witt Clinton has recently pub- 
lished a paper on the same subject, accompanied by some 
observations from Mr Audubon. Combining what these gen- 
tlemen have made known, with the information previously 
given by Vieillot and Say, we can present a tolerably com- 
plete history of the cliff swallow. 
Some doubts having been entertained whether the Hirundo 
lunifrons of the Rocky Mountains be the same species as the 
Hirundo fulva of the western part of New York, I was desi- 
rous of deciding the question by comparing the specimens ; this 
I accomplished through the politeness of Dr Dekay of New 
York, who, with the kindness and liberality distinctive of those 
who cultivate science for its own sake, sent me the specimen 
and nest deposited by Mr Clinton in the Cabinet of the Ly- 
ceum. Thus, being possessed of the individuals in question, 
we are enabled to place their specific identity beyond the reach 
of future uncertainty.^ 
* There can be nothing more annoying than being in a manner obliged to give 
an opinion regarding a disputed point, from descriptions and plates, without the 
actual comparison of the birds themselves. The authors of the Northern Zoo- 
logy consider the H. lunifrons of 'Say dilferent from the H. fulva of Vieillot, 
on account of the pure white front and slightly forked tall of the former ; but 
the Prince of Musignano makes them identical, from actual comparison with 
authentic specimens of H. fulva. The alternative, therefore, must be, that the 
specimens brought by the Northern Expedition are distinct from either, and yet 
unnamed. Audubon’s figure, however, is very nearly pure white in the frontlet, 
and he insists upon that colour even in the young ; — the tail is square, a decided 
mark of our author. There are either two species confused in these, or inatten- 
tion has been paid to the drawing and colouring of those parts where distinction 
chiefly is insisted on. 
On the precipitous coast of the Frith of Forth, near Tantallon Castle, in Had- 
dingtonshire, there was, in 1826 , and for several years previous, a colony of fifty 
or sixty pairs of H. urhica, building their nests in the usual form, but in the same 
manner, under a huge projecting cliff, as represented of the H. fulva. They 
struck me at the time of first seeing them, as a remarkable situation for the spe- 
cies ; and the plate here immediately recalled them to my memory. Mr Audu- 
bon’s description of their manner of building, may add to that of our author : — 
“ About daybreak they flew down to the shore of the river, one hundred 
yards distant, for the muddy sand of which the nests were constructed, and work- 
ed with great assiduity until near the middle of the day, as if it were that the 
