FULVOUS, OR CLIFF SWALLOW. 
79 
coloured plate, should not have even thought of com- 
paring his bird with that of Vieillot, who probably 
figured it with a forked tail merely because it was a 
swallow. The characters of the cliff swallow are so 
remarkable, and its manner of building is so peculiar, 
that, when these are accurately delineated, it cannot be 
mistaken for any other species. 
The cliff swallow is five and a half inches long. The 
bill is black, and the feet dusky; the irides are dark 
brown. A narrow black line extends over the bill to 
each eye ; the front is pale rufous, and the remaining 
part of the crown black violaceous ; the chin, throat, 
and cheeks, are dark ferruginous, extending in a narrow 
band on the hindhead ; the upper part of the body is 
black, glossed with violaceous ; the inferior part of the 
rump, and some of the tail-coverts, are pale ferruginous ; 
the breast is of a pale rufous ash colour, and the 
remaining under parts are whitish, tinged with brownish 
ferruginous. The wings and tail are blackish, the small 
wing-coverts being glossed with violaceous ; the inferior 
wing-coverts are ashy brown : the tail is nearly entire, 
somewhat shorter than the tips of the wings ; the 
exterior tail-feather is slightly edged with whitish on 
the inner vane ; the wing and tail-feathers have their 
shafts black above and white beneath. 
This description is taken from our finest male ; no 
difference exists between the sexes, and the young, even 
during early age, can scarcely be distinguished from the 
parents, except by having the front white instead of 
rufous. We are informed by Vieillot, that some indi- 
viduals have all the inferior surface of the body tinged 
with the same colour as that of the throat ; these are 
probably very old males. 
A very singular trait distinguishes the migrations of 
this bird. While the European, or white variety of the 
human race, is rapidly spreading over this continent, 
from its eastern borders to the remotest plains beyond 
the Mississippi, the cliff swallow advances from the 
extreme western regions, annually invading a new 
territory farther to the eastward, and induces us to 
