The Tree Swallow is a lover of the water and is seldom to be found at a great distance from it. It is close to the surface of ponds and lakes that the earliest insects are to be found in spring, and it is here that the bird may maintain the spotlessness of its plumage by frequent dips. Hence a favorite nesting site for these birds is one of the partially submerged forests which are so characteristic of western Washington lakes. The birds are not themselves able to make excavations in the wood, but they have no difficulty in possessing themselves of the results of other birds’ labors. Old holes will do if not too old, but I once knew a pair of these Swallows to drive away a pair of Northwest Flickers from a brand new nesting-hole, on the banks of Lake Union, and to occupy it themselves.

The nesting cavity is copiously lined with dead grass and feathers; and sometime during the last week of May from four to six white eggs are deposited. The female sits very closely and it is sometimes necessary to remove her by hand in order to examine the nest. Both parents are very solicitous on such occasions, and should a feather from the nest be tossed into the air, one of them will at once catch it and fly about awaiting a chance to replace it. Or if there are other Swallows about, some neighbor will snatch it first and make off with it to add to her own collection.

Tree Swallows are slowly availing themselves of artificial nesting sites. In fact, several species of our birds have become quite civilized, so that nowadays no carefully constructed and quietly situated bird-box need be without its spring tenant. A pair once built their nest in a sort of tower attic, just inside a hole which a Flicker had pierced in the ceiling of an open belfry of a country church in Yakima. When in service the mouth of the swinging bell came within two feet of the brooding bird. One would suppose that the Swallows would have been crazed with fright to find themselves in the midst of such a tumult of sound; but their enterprise fared successfully, as I can testify, for at the proper time I saw the youngsters ranged in a happy, twittering row along the upper rim of the bell-wheel.

No. 132.
VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW.

A. O. U. No. 615. Tachycineta thalassina lepida (Mearns).

Synonym.—Northern Violet-green Swallow.

Description.—Adult male: Upperparts, including pileum, hind-neck, back, upper portion of rump, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts, rich velvety bronze-green, occasionally tinged with purple, crown usually more or less contrasting with color of back, greenish-brown rather than bronze-green, and more strongly tinged with purple; a narrow cervical collar, lower rump, and upper tail-coverts, velvety violet-purple; wings (except lesser coverts) and tail blackish glossed with violet or purple; lores grayish; underparts, continuous with cheeks and area over and behind eye, and with conspicuous flank patch, nearly meeting fellow across rump, pure white; under wing-coverts pale gray, whitening on edge of wing. Bill black; feet brownish black; iris brown. Adult female: Like male but usually much duller, bronze-green of upperparts reduced to greenish brown, or brown with faint greenish reflections. Young birds are plain mouse-gray above and their inner secondaries are touched with white. Length 4.50-5.50 (114.3-139.7); wing 4.41 (112); tail 1.77 (45); bill .20 (5.2).

Recognition Marks.—Smaller; green and violet above, white below; white-cheeked and white-rumped (apparently) as distinguished from the Tree Swallow.

Nesting.—Nest: of dried grasses with or without feathers, placed in crevice of cliff or at end of vapor hole in basalt walls; latterly in bird boxes and about buildings. Eggs: 4-6, pure white. Av. size .72 × .48 (18.3 × 12.2). Season: June.

General Range.—Western United States, from the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, north to the Yukon Valley, south in winter to Costa Rica.

Range in Washington.—Summer resident, of regular occurrence in mountain valleys and among the foothills; rare or local elsewhere; becoming common in the larger cities.

Migrations.—Spring: “About the 10th of May” (Suckley)[49]; now at least March; Chelan, March 27, 1896; Seattle, March 24, 1906; Tacoma, March 16, 1907; March 14, 1908; Olympia, February 27(?), 1897.

Authorities.—?Ornith. Com. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., VII., 1837, 193 (Columbia River). Hirundo thalassina Swainson, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX., pt. II., 1858, p. 312. T. C&S. L¹. Rh. D¹. D². Ss¹. Kk. J. B. E.

Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. P¹. C. E.

To appear to the best advantage this dainty sky-child should be seen on a bright day, when the livid green of back and crown may reflect the glancing rays of the sun with a delicate golden sheen. At such a time, if one is clambering about the walls of some rugged granite cliff of the lower Cascades, he feels as if the dwellers of Olympus had come down in appropriate guise to inquire his business. Not, however, that these lovely creatures are either meddlesome or shrewish. Even when the nest is threatened by the strange presence, the birds seem unable to form any conception of harm, and pursue their way in sunny disregard. Especially pleasing to the eye is the pure white of the bird’s underparts, rising high on flanks and cheeks and sharply contrasting with the pattern of violet and green, in such fashion that, if Nature had invited us to “remold it nearer to the heart’s desire,” we must have declined the task.

VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW
MALE, 8/11 NATURAL SIZE
From a Water-color Painting by Allan Brooks

Before the advent of the white man upon Puget Sound, these birds commonly nested in deserted woodpecker holes and in natural cavities of trees, while upon the East-side they nested (and still do to a large extent) upon the granite or lava cliffs. In the last-named situations they utilize the rocky clefts and inaccessible crannies, and are especially fond of the smaller vapor holes which characterize the basaltic formations. Favorable circumstances may attract a considerable colony, to the number of a hundred pairs or more, but even so it is not easy to find a getatable nest. If one is able to reach the actual nesting site, the mouth of the ancient gas-vent which the birds have chosen for a home may prove too small to admit the hand.