454 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
By the end of August the species is in full migration southward, and the departure 
is so rapid that by the middle of September few are left. At Willis, 7,800 feet, on the 
Pecos most of the birds had left before September 8, 1883, and the rest departed a few 
days later (Henshaw). They were seen September 10, 1903, at Black Lake, and 
September 15, 1906, near Laguna (Bailey). 
Spring migrants arrive during April: Cooney, April 2, 1889; on the Gila River, at 
8,000 feet, April 10, 1913 (Ligon); at Carlisle, April 14, 1890 (Barrell); Willis, April, 
14, 1900 (Birtwell). [Several were seen near Albuquerque May 3, 1920 (Ligon). 
A specimen was taken at Silver City, May 6, 1917 (Kellogg).J Ordinarily all the 
birds would be at their summer homes before the end of May, but on June 14, 1903, 
three birds were seen near Montoya, where they presumably do not breed. They had 
probably been driven down from the mountains by a cold storm (Bailey). [At Lake 
Burford they were found in flocks the latter part of May, 1918, and after June 7 were 
fairly common in gulches (Wetmore).]—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. In cliffs, hollow trees, or old woodpecker holes, and sometimes in a build¬ 
ing; lined with grasses and feathers. Eggs: 4 or 5, white. 
Food. Insects, practically 100 per cent. Bugs make up over a third of the 
food, leaf hoppers being the greatest favorite; of 12 families represented, all but one 
are plant eaters and some do great damage. Wasps and wild bees constitute about a 
sixth of the food, flies about a fifth, beetles about a tenth (mainly harmful), and ants 
a little less. While it eats some beneficial parasitic and predatory insects, “it devours 
an immense number of harmful and annoying insects’' (Beal). 
General Habits.— Seen high in the air in an opening among the 
conifers, the small Violet-green Swallows, uttering a sharp note, flutter 
about after insects with a bat-like, hesitating flight, only their white 
underparts and white rump patches visible; but when entering a nest 
hole in a cottonwood or aspen, the remarkable violet and green of 
their backs surprises and delights the eye. One of the most beautiful 
of western birds, it is always a pleasure to meet them, whether in 
flocks or at their nests. 
At Fort Wingate, where Mr. Hollister found them common in the 
middle of June, 1905, they were nesting in holes in cliffs near White- 
throated Swifts. In the gorge of the Rio Grande southwest of Taos 
at about 7,000 feet, Mr. Ligon found numbers, presumably nesting, 
June 19, 1919. In the Pecos River Canyon they were found by us 
from a few miles north of Pecos up to 11,000 feet on Jack Creek, below 
Pecos Baldy, where a few were seen; but they were most numerous 
at 8,700 feet, where, on July 19, Mr. Bailey found them breeding in 
cliffs, and at 10,300 feet, where, on July 25, 1903, we saw them in a 
grove of poplars on the mesa, busy about their nests in old woodpecker 
holes, in company with the beautiful Arctic Bluebirds. The interesting 
birds were found almost everywhere in the mountains above Taos, 
from 7,400 to 11,400 feet. At 11,400 feet in the amphitheater of 
Wheeler Peak about August 1, 1904, they were flying around the lake 
in numbers. At Amizett, an abandoned mining town, on August 8, 
we were glad to find them flying about a deserted house and to hear 
