reported specimens obtained in Kerrville, Kerr County, Texas, which he referred to P. f. pullida, a race described by Nelson (1902: 2 11) from Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico. That the Cave Swallow breeds in Texas was established in 1915 by Thayer' s report of nests and eggs collected near Japonica, Kerr County. A year later the existence of "several isolated colonies" six miles west of Ingram, Kerr County, was announced by Smith ( 19 16: 191) . Recently an extension of known breeding range to Eddy

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... ounty, New Mexico, was reported (Kincaid and Prasil, 1956:452), and the existence of a colony in Edwards County, Texas, was briefly noted (Wolfe, 1956: 50, and Pettingill, 1957:32). With the exception of these reports, a record of two individuals seen on the Tortugas in June, 1915 (Hull, 1939: 24), and a description of a ceratophyllid flea from nests in Uvalde County, Texas (Eads, 1956:73-76), no further accounts of the Cave Swallow in the United States have been forthcoming in the 41 years since Smith' s report. It therefore seems desirable to present additional information concerning variation, distribution, and ecology of this species in Texas. ., respectively. Tape recordings of calls were made by Mr. Wayne McAlister. DISTRIBUTION The Cave Swallow breeds in the Greater Antilles from Puerto Rico west to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, and the Isle of Pines; the Cuban and Isle of Pines swallows are recognized as a separate race, P. f. coronuta. On the continent the species breeds in Yucatan (P. f. citata) and in central Chiapas (subspecies? ; see hadon and Eckelberry, 1955: 75) and, as P. f. pallida, in Eddy County, southeastern New Mexico, in central Texas, and in northeastern Mexico, where it is known from three localities in Coahuila (Saltillo, Sabinas, Monclova) and one in Tamaulipas (Miquic 345 1 LIBRARY UNlVERSlJY OF IDAI'IO 346 THE CONDOR Vol. 59 huana). According to Hellmayr (1934:35) the Peruvian and Ecuadorian swallow rujocollar~ is conspecific with P. f&a. In Texas nesting of this colonial swallow is confined to limestone caves along the southern edge of the Edwards Plateau, a massive upland extending over much of the central and southwestern parts of the state. On the south and east the plateau descends to the low flatlands of Texas over the maturely eroded Balcones Escarpment, which decreases in height from 1500 feet at Del Rio near the Rio Grande to less than 100 feet north of Austin. Along the escarpment, where thick strata of limestone are exposed and highly dissected, numerous springs and caves occur, the latter ranging in size from small pits or shelters to gigantic cavern systems. Several of the larger springs are sources of rivers which flow to the lowlands. The most widespread plant association of the dissected southern and southeastern parts of the plateau is a scrub forest of Mexican cedar (Juniperus mexicanu), Texas oak (Quercus texana), and stunted live oak (Quercus virgin&a). Extensive areas have been cleared and converted to grassland or Savannah by cattle ranchers. The climate of this region is semiarid-mesothermal, with average annual potential evapotranspiration of 39.27 inches (Thornthwaite, 1948). The distribution of breeding colonies of the Cave Swallow in Texas is shown in figure 1. Many, perhaps most, of the larger caves east of the Pecos River in western Val Verde County and west of Kerrville, Kerr County, are inhabited by these swallows.