IT was my privilege to be asked by the late Edward Howe Forbush to contribute a brief biography of the Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) for the final volume of "The Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States." As part of that biography a map was prepared showing our present knowledge of the distribution of this bird in our region. Thirty years ago the bird was considered a very rare straggler to New England except in. southwestern Connecticut. Outside of that area, there was but one definite breeding-record, that of a pair of birds which were found nesting at North Adams, Massachusetts, in June, 1895, by Walter Faxon. The only other Massachusetts record of the species was that of a single bird taken at Easthampton in 1851. The bird was unknown in Maine, New Iampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island, and was considered decidedly rare and local in Connecticut. Since that time, however, it has been recorded as breeding in every State in New England except Maine, and it is now regarded as quite common in Connecticut, though still locally distributed. The species has undoubtedly increased in numbers and extended its range within the last half-century, though the fact that there are many more observers in the field to-daythan fifty years ago must be considered in weighing the evidence of our records. In Connecticut the Rough-winged Swallow was first recorded as a straggler in 1874, when a single bird was taken at Suffield, but it is now considered a regular and not rare breeder in most Of the towns along the coast, and it also breeds in numerous inland localities in the valleys of the ttousatonic, Naugatuck, Quinnipiack, Connecticut, and Thames Rivers. In recent years it has apparently extended its range into southwestern Rhode Island, where Harry S. Hathaway found it breeding at Vesterly in 1917 and in Chariestown in 1929. The next appearance of the Rough-winged Swallow in Massachusetts, after Faxon reported his North Adams birds, .was apparently in 1903, when the species was noted as breeding m Cheshire in Berkshire County. That same year it was observed several times at Groton in northwestern Middlesex County, where it probably bred, although no nest was found or young birds observed. Since that time it has been reported as undoubtedly breeding at Pittsfield, Stockbridge, West Stock- PLATE VII ME. DISTRIBUTION OF iOUGH-WINGED SWALLOW IN NEW ENGLAND Breeding records, black circles Migration records in Massachusetts, black rings PLATE VIII RO'UGI:I-WI.-GED SWkLLOW Above nesting-site on Asquam River, .New Hampshire. Centre, adult with insects for young. Below, nest opening in Bank. Photographs by John B. May. bridge, and Lenox in Berkshire County, Longmeadow, West Springfield, and Westfield in Hampden County, and Hunting- on in Hampshire County. It was first reported from he coast in 1916, when a pair were seen al; Ipswich. Tilere are a number of later reports from Essex County and northern Middlesex, and in May, 1929, a pair were observed at Middleton, Essex County, carrying nesting-mat, trial ino a burrow, but the nesting-site was abandoned before the eggs were laid. In Vermont the ill'St authentic record o[ the Rough-winged Swallow was the nesting of a pair at Norwich in 1905 and 1900, and in I, hc latter yea.r a pair were found breeding at Benning- ton. Since f. hcn the birds have been observed several different snmmcrs in the Bennington region. Ill 1918 a pair was noted several 6roes during June at St. Johnsbury, but no nest was located. There is also the record o[a bird taken at Rutland, and one seen at Lunenburg. This last record, if accepted, would bc thc f:n'thcst north l,}mt tile bird has been found in New England. Tile first New Hampshire record to which I have access is ha of the Norwich birds, which, in 1905 and 1.906, were fre- quently seen flying abont on the New llmnpshire side of the Connecticut River at Ilanover. In July, 1909, F. I. Martin found Rough-wings breeding at Boscawen in tile Merrimack Valley above Concord, bnt this record was not published, and the ilrst printed account of the nesting of this species in the state was that of Ellen S. Webster, who reported in Bird-Lore for 1915 that several pairs nested at Winnisquam in 1913. In 1910 I observed a pair on the Asquam River in Ashland, and ill June, 1917, I fmmd a nest and captured and photographed one of the parent birds. Unfortunately bird-banding had not become populm' at that time and the bird was released unhanded. In 1923 A. F. McGowan found the birds nesting near Manchester, and in 1925 Grace M. Snow discovered the farthest northeastcrl breeding-place of the species at'Snowville, in tghc township of Eaton, close to the boundary between Maine and New Ilanq)shire. According to Arthur H. Norton, the species has never been recorded in Maine either as a breeding bird or as , nilgrant. The accompanying map, which shows the known breeding- places in New England and the migration or summer records of this bird in Massachusetts, brings out tile fondness of this species for the sea-coast and or river valleys. This is especially evident in Connecticut. The North Adams and Bennington stations are in the valley of the Hoesick River, and the birds apparently enter this section of New England by way of the Ilndson Valley. We }lave reports from the Connecticut Valley as far north as St. Johnsbury and perhaps Lunenbm'g in Vermont; the birds have followed its tributary the Millers River to Orange, Athol, and Winchendon in Massachusetts; and perhaps the visitors o tile Merrimack vatcrshcd have reached that; a.rea by followiBg a Connecticut-Millers R.iver-Squanacook-Nashua River route. The almost complete absence of reports of the Rough-winged Swallow from southeasCern Massachusetts is significant and lends force to the hypothesis that this species follows river valleys in migration. Tile region south and east of the Charles River, which exhibits many races of the Carolinian fmma and flora,, has brought me but, three reports of this bird, all strag- glers dnring the migration period. A more systematic search for nesting-places of this species might bring us much valuable daa. The nestiBg-holcs are often large enough for the young to be easily reached for ba.nding, and the :t(lults can be captured by slipping a small landing-not such as most, anglers own, over the entrance to the nest, when the young birds are being fed. Tile bird shows a catholic taste in selecting nesting-places, however, as it some- tinms apparently excavates its OWB burrow, but it more often uses that of a Kingfisher or :t Bank Swallow, a cranny in a ledge, or a crevice in the foundations of a bridge or factory, a.nd it even at times uses an open tile drain in a river-bank. Cob asset,, Massachusetts.