Plate 68 – Republican Cliff Swallow

In the spring of 1815, a cold front passed through Henderson, Kentucky, that froze to death a number of birds that John James Audubon found lying along the banks of the Ohio River. Audubon noticed others that looked similar still flying about in and out of small cups of mud that were placed close to each other on a cliff next to the river. “I drew up a description at the time, naming the species Hirundo republicans, 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.” For the later octavo edition of the Birds of America, Audubon re-identified the Republican Swallow as the Cliff swallow.