1. Progne purpurea. Boie.
Hirundo purpurea, Wils.
Birds. Pl. 5.
Progne modestus.
My specimens were obtained at Monte Video, (November) and Bahia Blanca, 39° S. (September) how much further southward this species extends I do not know. Jardine says, that in North America it migrates during summer as far as the Great Bear Lake, in Lat. 66° N.; it is mentioned by M. Audubon, at New Orleans, 30° N., and by Mr. Swainson, at Pernambuco, in 8½° S.; we may, therefore, conclude that it ranges throughout both Americas, but it is not found in the Old World. Wilson describes this bird as a great favourite with the inhabitants of North America, both European and Indian, who erect boxes and other contrivances near their houses for it to build in. At Bahia Blanca, the females were beginning to lay in September, (corresponding to our March): they had excavated deep holes in a cliff of compact earth, close by the side of the larger burrows inhabited by the ground parrot of Patagonia, (Psittacara Patagonica.) I noticed several times a small flock of these birds, pursuing each other, in a rapid and direct course, flying low, and screaming in the manner so characteristic of the English Swift, (Hirundo Apus, Linn.)
2. Progne Modesta. Gould.
Plate V.
Hirundo concolor, Gould, in Proceedings of the Zoological Society.
P. nitidè cærulescenti-nigra.
Long. tot. 6 unc.; alæ, 5¼; caudæ, 2¾; tarsi, ½.