3 5 2 M A R S H B L A C K B I R D.
Bill, eyes and feet, as in the adult male. The general colour of the
upper parts is dark-brown, the feathers edged with lighter. The shoulder
is scarlet, but of a lighter tint; the second row of wing-coverts broadly
margined with brownish-white; the larger coverts and quills margined
with reddish-white. Quills and tail brownish-black. The under parts
are dark greyish-brown, spotted with black.
Adult Female. Plate LXVII. Fig. 3.
The adult female resembles the male of the first spring in colouring.
The bill is lighter; there is a broad streak of pale brown from the bill
over each eye ; the wing-coverts are less broadly margined, and the lesser
wing-coverts are merely tinged with red. The size is greatly inferior to
that of the adult male, the length being only 7£ inches.
Young Bird. Plate LXVII. Fig. 4.
The young is similar to the female, lighter on the cheeks and throat,
and having merely a slight tinge of red on the lesser wing-coverts.
THE R E D MAPLE OR SWAMP MAPLE.
ACER RUBRUM, Willd. Sp. PI. vol, iv. p. 984. Pursh, Flor. Amer. vol. i. p. 266.
Mich. Abr. Forest, de l'Amer. Sept. vol. ii. p. 210, PI. 14.—OCTANDRIA MONOGYKIA,
Linn. ACERINiE, Juss.
This species having been represented in Plate LXVII in seed, has
already been described at p. 287.
2
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T H E R E P U B L I C A N O R C L I F F S W A L L O W.
HlRUNDO FULVA, VlEILL.
P L A T E L X V I I I . MALE, FEMALE, AND NESTS.
IN the spring of 1815, I for the first time saw a few individuals of this
species at Henderson, on the banks of the Ohio, a hundred and twenty
miles below the Falls of that river. It was an excessively cold morning,
and nearly all were killed by the severity of the weather. I drew up a
description at the time, naming the species Hirundo rcpublicana, the
Republican Swallow, in allusion to the mode in which the individuals belonging
to it associate, for the purpose of forming their nests and rearing
their young. Unfortunately, through the carelessness of my assistant,
the specimens were lost, and I despaired for years of meeting with
others.
In the year 1819, my hopes were revived by Mr ROBERT BEST,
curator of the Western Cincinnati Museum, who informed me that a
strange species of bird had made its appearance in the neighbourhood,
building nests in clusters, affixed to the walls. In consequence of this
information, I immediately crossed the Ohio to New Port, in Kentucky,
where he had seen many nests the preceding season ; and no sooner were
we landed than the chirruping of my long-lost little strangers saluted my
ear. Numbers of them were busily engaged in repairing the damage
done to their nests by the storms of the preceding winter.
Major OLDHAM of the United States' Army, then commandant of the
garrison, politely offered us the means of examining the settlement of
these birds, attached to the walls of the building under his charge. He
informed us, that, in 1815, he first saw a few of them working against the
wall of the house, immediately under the eaves and cornice; that their
work was carried on rapidly and peaceably, and that as soon as the
young were able to travel, they all departed. Since that period, they
had returned every spring, and then amounted to several hundreds.
They usually appeared about the 10th of April, and immediately began
their work, which was at that moment, it being then the 20th of that
month, going on in a regular manner, against the walls of the arsenal.
They had about fifty nests quite finished, and others in progress.
z