WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW. | 287 
The Swallows are zrial Fly-catchers, never taking food except on the 
wing, for which their structure especially adapts them. The Barn Swal- 
low is the best known, ard, on the whole, the most abundant, and most 
universally semi-domesticated with us of the family. I have never 
known them to nest otherwise than in barns, sheds, under the roof of 
bridges or other buildings. In uninhabited regions they buiid their 
nests in caves, and Dr. Coues states that in the Northwest he found them 
nesting in small holes and crevices in a perpendicular bank. 
The nest, as the name of the bird implies, is usually placed in the in- 
interior of a barn, under the roof, attached to the beams aud rafters. 
Sometimes as many as fifty pairs occupy the same barn. The nest is 
composed of pellets of mud and bits of straw, sometimes with a projecting 
snelf, which serves as a roost for one or both of the parents. Several 
broods are raised in a season. ' The eggs are very variable in shape, aver- 
aging .78 to .56, white, spotted and blotched with bright reddish-brown. 
GENUS TACHYCINETA. Cabanis. 
Nostrils lateral, overhung or bordered internally by incumbent membrane. Tarsi 
about equal to middle toe without claw, with tibial extremity covered with overhang- 
ing feathers, adherent a short distance along inner face. Lateral toes equal. Adhesion 
of basal joint of middle toe variable. Tail emarginate only, or slightly torked, fork not 
exceeding half an inch in depth. 
TACHYCINETA BICOLOR (V.) Cab. 
W hite-bellied Swallow. 
Hirundo bicolor, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 162.—REapb, Proc. Phila. Acad. Nate 
Sci, vi, 1853, 395.—KIkKPATRICK, Ohio Farmer, viii, 1859, 243.—Wuraton, Ohio 
Agric Rep. for 1860, 1561, 364; Reprint, 6.—LANGDON, Revised List, Journ. Cin. 
Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 173; Reprint, 7. 
Tachycineta bicolor, WHEATON, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 1875, 565 ; 
Reprint, 5.—LANGDON, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 7; Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 
1878, 113; Reprint, 4. 
White-bellied Swallow, BALLou, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 136. 
Hirundo bicolor, ViEILLoT, Ois. Am. Sept., i, 1807, 61. 
Tachycineta bicolor, CABANIS, Mus. Hein., i, 1850, 4. 
Lustrous green; below, pure white. Young similar, not so glossy. Length, 6-6}; 
wing, 5; tail, 24. 
a 
Habitat, Temperate America. 
Very common summer resident. Somewhat irregular in its distribu- 
tion during the breeding season. Arrives early in April and remains 
until September. The White-bellied Swallow is, in the vicinity of Co- 
lumbus, rather rare except during the migrations; formerly they were 
